Storm Otto, which was named by the Danish Meteorological Institute, hit Scotland and north-east England last Friday (February 17 2023) with wind gusts of over 80mph, disrupting power to 61,000 homes.
Otto was the first named storm of the UK’s current winter storm season and the first to hit the country’s shores since storms Dudley, Eunice and Franklin last February. Over the course of a week, these three storms barrelled in from the North Atlantic causing wind and flood damage worth over €3.7 billion (£3.2 billion) in insured losses across Europe.
The UK has seen only a few notable instances of stormy weather so far this winter. For example, heavy rainfall in the first few weeks of January led to flooding on the Somerset Levels. But this storm was not intense enough to be named. This happens only when a storm has the potential to be severe enough to cause an amber or red warning.
