January summary: Storm Goretti devastates Cornwall

In my first posting of the year I said "Happy New Year to you all and let's hope it will be a better one than 2025, with less conflict and upheaval across the world."  Well, that hope flew out of the window in the first few days of 2026 and it looks like being another troublesome year on the world stage. I guess everyone has their own views on some of the outrageous things said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Here in Cornwall, we returned from mild weather conditions in the Alps at the end of December to icy conditions, with temperatures touching zero. On the 8th of the month alarms sounded on our phones with a rare red "danger to life" warning from the Government and Storm Goretti, one of the most severe storms to hit Cornwall in the last 30 to 35 years, arrived in the evening with winds of up to 99 mph. Many homes in Cornwall, including Falmouth, suffered severe damage and long power outages, but fortunately, apart from flickering lights, we escaped it. Reports suggest that tens of thousands of trees may have been blown down across the county including 80% of the trees on the iconic St. Michael's Mount at Marazion and the immense force of the wind was evident when walking around Falmouth.

Tregoniggie Woodlands, Falmouth

Falmouth Cemetery

Close on the heels of Goretti, Storm Ingrid, although not as severe, produced very heavy seas which damaged beach properties on Cornwall's south coast and disrupted train services within and out of the county.

Breach of the sea wall at Dawlish, Devon, on the London-Penzance main line
Source: BBC

The rain has been relentless and shortly after Ingrid moved on Storm Chandra brought more torrential rain, disruption and flooding. 

New MEI recruit Will missed all this, as he had taken off for warmer climes, flying to Rio for travels in South America with his friend Sam. While in Brazil they managed to see the Iguasu Falls, arguably the most impressive falls in the world (posting of 1st August 2016), Will favouring the Brazilian rather than the Argentinian side of the Falls.

After travelling through Paraguay they enjoyed Buenos Aires, where they were joined by Will's girlfriend, Liv, before moving on to Uruguay. Will resumes his apprenticeship with MEI on his return and hopefully you will see him with Amanda and me at the Cape Town IMPC in October.

#MEIBlog