Will the North East see further storms this winter? The Met Office has their say

This winter the North East has been battered by storm after storm, but with Storm Malik now in the past and the recovery efforts in full stead, how likely are we to see another bad storm this winter?

We’ve already seen Storm Arwen at the end of November and Storm Barra over the second weekend of December while the end of January saw Storm Malik cause damage to properties and travel – and there may still be more on the way.

Although the Met Office claim to only be able to accurately predict weather systems up to five days into the future, the weather service also provide updates up to a month in the future, and the high winds could be making a return later in February.

For the final few days of the month and the opening week of March, the Met Office are warning of less settled conditions with rain and strong winds hitting the north of England.

Storms hitting the UK towards the end of winter is nothing new, with Storm Jorge hitting northern parts of the country in the final days of February 2020 and Storm Freya causing havoc in South West areas and Wales back in 2019.

If it feels as though the North East has been in the path of more storms than usual this winter, you’d be correct. The region has already been badly impacted by three storms this summer compared to just one last year. This was Storm Darcy which gave much of the UK a heavy covering of snow.

The year before saw Storm Dennis cause a yellow weather warning across the North East, but it was Wales which was saw the worst flooding and heavy wind.

Since 2016 there have been five named storms which have hit the UK across mid-to-late February and March with only three severely impacting the North East. These were storms Jorge, Freya and Doris, which hit the region back in late February 2017 and brought heavy winds and torrential rain.