One of the worst storms in history
On Jan. 8, 2026, the U.K. was hit by one of the most impactful storms in decades, known as Storm Goretti. The southwest region of England was most impacted by the storm, with red (danger to life) wind warnings were administered in the Cornwall region before the storm made landfall with wind speeds up to 160 km/h (100 m.p.h.). The National Coastwatch recorded a windspeed of 198 km/h (123 m.p.h.) in a peninsula in northern Cornwall. As the storm moved westwards, trains suspended their services across the entire U.K. Snow and ice, worsened by thawing and refreezing led to prolonged school closures, with many areas in northern Scotland closed for an entire week.
Coastal towns flooded, leading to road closures for cars and buses. In some areas, shelter-in-place advisories were recommended. In total, some 37,000 homes lost power in south England, with 15 cm of snow in Wales leading to nationwide school closures due to freezing roads and melting the following day. Environmental scientists of Cornwall Council estimate the number of trees downed in Cornwall alone by Goretti is in the thousands. Although there is no official count, they have deemed the damage one of the most impactful storms in history.
In the southeast region of England, the storm presented an unforeseen effect: loss of water. With a series of power blips across the region, South East Water, the main drinking water supplier in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, and Berkshire encountered technical failures. Many areas on the water grid experienced reduced water pressure or complete loss of running water in their homes. Tens of thousands of homes throughout the counties of Kent and Sussex lost water for over 24 hours, causing the closure of schools and universities. At the University of Kent, the majority of student accommodations were without water on Jan. 11-13, leading to campus supermarkets limiting each customer to only one bottle of water each and moving classes online on the 13 after overuse of affected campus facilities on the 12. Although the storm placed stress on water access, South East Water’s failures are largely a result of underinvestment in the water sector and difficulty keeping up with growing populations in the region.
Although Goretti surpassed other storms in terms of severity, winter storms with hurricane-force winds have become increasingly common in Ireland, the U.K. and western Europe. When the sun moves southward in the northern hemisphere during winter, the polar front also travels southward – a boundary between cold polar air and warm continental air. When polar winds meet warm winds coming from the west, low-pressure systems are created, which can lead to hurricanes and strong winds. As climate change raises average temperatures, the abundance of these low-pressure systems will increase.