Storm Desmond
Desmond on 5 December 2015
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| Type | Extratropical cyclone |
|---|---|
| Formed | 3 December 2015 |
| Dissipated | 8 December 2015 |
| Lowest pressure | 939 millibars (27.7 inHg) |
| Highest winds |
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| Highest gust | 112 mph (180 km/h) (Aonach Mòr, Scottish Highlands) |
| Damage | £400–500 million (€550–700M) |
| Power outages | 46,300 |
| Casualties | 3 |
| Areas affected | Ireland, Isle of Man, United Kingdom, Iceland, Norway, Sweden |
| Part of the 2015–16 UK and Ireland windstorm season | |
Storm Desmond was an extratropical cyclone and fourth named storm of the 2015–16 UK and Ireland windstorm season, notable for directing a plume of moist air, known as an atmospheric river, which brought record amounts of orographic rainfall to upland areas of northern Atlantic Europe and subsequent major floods.
In the United Kingdom the worst affected areas were centred on Cumbria, parts of Lancashire and the Scottish Borders. In Ireland the worst affected areas were in the Shannon River Basin in the west and Irish midlands.
The extent of damage caused in such a short period across wide areas brought into focus the performance of UK central government flood defence strategies. Expensive flood defence systems were proven ineffective and in some cases appeared to increase the problem. Professor Dieter Helm, Chair of the UK government's Natural Capital Committee stated in January 2016: "Flooding crises tend to follow an established pattern. First, there is immediate help and assistance. Then second, there is a “review”. On occasions, this leads to a third stage of genuine reform, but in most cases “sticking plasters” are applied. These are incremental and often sensible, but typically fail to address the core issues and hence provide only a temporary respite. There are very good reasons why ”sticking plasters” will not work this time. The conventional approach to flood defence, carried out by the Environment Agency (EA), and financed largely by the Treasury, is at best inefficient. Sometimes it is even counterproductive, encouraging the sorts of land use and land management decisions that can actually make flooding worse in the medium term." The Chairman of the UK's Environment Agency, the body responsible for main river maintenance resigned in early 2016. The UK government House of Commons Select Committee for the environment challenged the Chief Executive Officer of the Environment Agency on its performance by stating: “You [Sir James Bevan, CEO] said "The capacity of a river doesn't matter!" You've got to be certain the leopard has changed its spots. And I will keep repeating this. You haven't really given us an answer as to whether you have monitored the situation. I'm fearful. You allowed the River Parrett [Somerset] to silt up, you allowed the Tone to silt up, you allowed the tributaries to silt up, and then it flooded.” The Committee added: “The EA don't provide [quotes for work] when doing projects so we can't compare like with like [with other project providers]. There is an argument for transparency on your spending... You say the right words and hold onto your power."
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