Severe Extratropical Cyclone "Christian" - 14 dead.

[Extratropical94]

Southern England, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany and Denmark have been hit today by what might be the strongest storm system in 20 years, "Christian".
The system brought wind gusts of 110+ mph to coastal areas and caused major disruptions in public transport and infrastructure.
Countless trees were uprooted, roofs were blown off and cars were smashed by falling debris. Major transportation hubs and railroad companies had to shut down or dramatically reduce their services due to the violent storm. The central pressure was estimated to be in the 960s, which is quite common for a storm system like this, but an extremely tight pressure gradient led to higher winds and thus higher damages than expected.

Here's a list of the highest gusts so far:
193 km/h (120 mph) – Kegnaes (Denmark, new record for highest recorded gust in Denmark)
191 km/h (118 mph) - Helgoland-Oberland (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)
191 km/h (118 mph) - Borkum (Niedersachsen, Germany)
182 km/h (113 mph) - Hörnum/Sylt (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)
181 km/h (112 mph) - List/Sylt-Ellenbogen (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)
172 km/h (107 mph) - St. Peter-Ording (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)
170 km/h (106 mph) - Juist (Niedersachsen, Germany)

The North Sea was about 7 feet higher than normal albeit an astronomical deviation of -2 feet, so the total wind surge was about 9 feet.

TWC also has an article on this: http://www.weather.com/news/st-jude-day ... k-20131028

Here are some pictures I took at the North Sea dike (about 2 hours before high tide).





Below some images of wind damage in my neighborhood:

[Extratropical94]

The death toll is up to 14.

[vbhoutex]

Was this possibly from ATL leftovers? I don't think I saw anything saying where it came from. Who is doing the naming? TWC didn't name it from what I saw. Did I miss something?

[Extratropical94]

The low formed on the southern periphery of another, deeper low over Iceland. I could imagine that the deepening was enhanced by the leftovers of TS Lorenzo whose energy was transported towards Europe in the jet stream.
And the names are given by the University of Berlin. They have been doing the naming since 1999 and they name both high and low pressure areas that have a significant effect on the weather in Central Europe.
I haven't heard anything from TWC concerning naming either, only an article about the storm's impact on the British Isles.

Edit: Wikipedia has a good summary on the meteorological history of the storm:

A depression formed off the east coast of the United States and headed east, assisted by the jet stream. The St Jude storm formed in the western Atlantic as a secondary low on the southern flanks of an area of low pressure to the east of southern Greenland; this Icelandic Low was named "Burkhard" by the Free University of Berlin. The St Jude storm formed from a wave front on 26 October in the northwest Atlantic off the Eastern seaboard of North America. The developing low moved under the jet stream passing by the remnants of ex-tropical storm Lorenzo situated in the mid Atlantic. The tropical air from this storm provided an input of energy, strengthening the jetstreak, and helping to intensify the deepening of the low in an area closer to Europe than usual. This, together with a strong jet stream, led to a rapid deepening of the St Jude low before it hit western Europe as a strengthening storm. Across southern England two zones of strong winds were noted, the first ahead of the storm that battered the south coast, and a second zone that struck East Anglia and the South East as the storm passed over into the North Sea. This second zone of winds has been identified by meteorologists as potentially being a sting jet, an area where wind speeds are enhanced by cooled air rapidly descending from high in the storm. The storm developed as a baroclinic leaf over England. Over 20 hours between 27 October at 18:00 UTC and 28 October 14:00 UTC the central pressure of the storm dropped by 22 hPa.

[vbhoutex]

Ah, thanks for following up on that. Interesting. I wonder how many people think about the fact that another non-tropical storm can be "enhanced" by the remnants of a tropical low. As much as I know about the tropics and weather, I really hadn't thought much about it.