Daily Mirror, on Climate, 25 October 2026

6.0out of 10Serious

UK weather as Storm Chloe could follow Boelo warnings battering Brits with third storm in six days

Tap a highlight to see why it matters.2 findings

Tens of thousands of people were left without power after , as wind and rain felled trees, caused massive 20ft waves, and brought down power lines. Now it is feared a third named storm , Chloe, could be the next to batter Britain late Monday into Tuesday. Since Friday, more than 344,900 customers had to be reconnected because of the double-trouble caused by Storm Austen - the first named storm of the season - then Storm Boelo .

Left out here: Leaves out what changes the picture

The article lists power cuts, travel disruption, waves and fallen trees but never mentions that people died. Coverage published the following day reports that two men were killed by falling trees during Storm Boelo over the weekend. Without this, a reader takes the storm's toll to be disruption only. The coverage came out after this article, so it is not shown that the deaths were known when it was written.

How we know

On Sunday morning, 80,000 customers were still without power, according to the Energy Networks Association (ENA), which said conditions were making it dangerous for their engineers in some areas. To see more of the stories you love from The Mirror and to find them easily in Google then make us your preferred source. Free and easy-to-do, just click on the link here to find more from The Mirror at the top of your feed. The gusts became so wild, the public were urged to avoid travel and ‘stay indoors’ while thrill-seekers were warned to ‘stay away’, urged to avoid Scarborough where high tides clashed with high astronomical tides.

, losing motorways, cancelling ferries and leaving trains out of action. Rail passengers in the north were urged not to travel after trees fell on rail tracks and damaged overhead electric wires. People were told not to travel north of Preston by Avanti West Coast, while LNER advised not to travel between Edinburgh and Aberdeen. Northern said it was “strongly advising” passengers “ not to travel across the Northern network today.

A tree across the track stopped services running between Bradford and Leeds. More than 100 flights were grounded, among the affected airports were Heathrow, Manchester , Belfast International Airport and Edinburgh Airport. A fallen tree struck overhead electric wires near Stansted airport, which blocked the main line from London Liverpool Street, stopping Stansted Express services. Leeds Bradford Airport said in a statement on Sunday: “Our teams on the ground are working hard in challenging weather conditions to support passengers and manage the impact of the disruption.

Unfortunately, some departing flights have been cancelled.” In Gourock, on the Firth of Clyde, a boat broke free from its moorings before being washed up on to road. While waves broke at heights of up to 20ft against the harbour wall at Findochty in Moray. The Environment Agency had six flood warnings and 33 flood alerts in place on Sunday afternoon. The service warned: “Avoid coastal roads, footpaths and carparks, which may be flooded.

Stay away from promenades where wave and spray overtopping is possible." Meteorologist Alex Burkill said: “(Storm Boelo) is bringing some very strong winds, gusts in excess of 80mph. It has brought a very deep area of low pressure close to record-breaking for this time of year. We are already looking closely at a deep area of low pressure heading towards us.. I’m expecting wet and windy weather to arrive later Monday, into Tuesday which can cause more impacts especially to places recovering after Storm Boelo.”

The Met Office said: “Unsettled conditions are expected to continue into next week, particularly in the north, as another area of low pressure approaches the UK, bringing further wet and windy weather, with a wind warning already issued for northern parts of the UK on Tuesday." But in a bit of good news, they added: “Further ahead, there are signs of higher pressure becoming more influential towards the end of the week, which could bring a transition towards more settled conditions for parts of the UK.”

The ENA gave an update at 8am on Sunday to say: “The networks have been focussed on reconnecting customers this morning, though the continuing severe weather in some regions is limiting network engineers' opportunities to safely start the work of restoring customers' power today and access to certain areas remains difficult. Engineers are working around the clock to identify and fix faults. 344,900 customers have been reconnected, following Storms Austen and Boelo 82,600 customers are without power in Great Britain.”

Read the original article on mirror.co.uk (opens in a new tab)
What we found (2)

The Mirror reports two back-to-back storms that cut power to hundreds of thousands of customers, dropped 100mm of rain in places and brought a pressure close to record-breaking, with a third storm possibly on the way. It never tells its reader that a warming climate makes heavy rainfall like this more frequent and more severe, so the storms read as bad luck with the weather alone.

  1. Leaves out the climate link

    Serious

    “The wind and rain, 100mm in 24 hours in some areas, caused travel chaos”

    Why this matters
    The Mirror reports 100mm of rain in 24 hours and the chaos it caused, and presents it purely as weather.
    The impression it gives
    A reader comes away thinking this extreme downpour is just a matter of an unlucky autumn, with nothing changing the odds.
    The context
    Human-caused warming has made heavy rainfall more frequent and more intense. The article has no word on climate or warming anywhere, not even a single line.

    How we know

    • Checked against the whole articleIt never uses the words “climate” and “warming”.
    • On the recordThat warming has made hot extremes, heavy rainfall, agricultural and ecological drought, fire weather and intense tropical cyclones more frequent or more severe.ipcc.ch (opens in a new tab)

    Show it in the article

    “back-to-back storms threatened to break records”

    Why this matters
    The Mirror's opening line says the storms threatened records and leaves the reader to treat that as chance.
    The impression it gives
    A reader believes near-record storms arriving back to back are simply a run of bad weather.
    The context
    The article quotes a meteorologist saying the low pressure was "close to record-breaking for this time of year" and reports flood warnings and heavy rain. It never says that warming loads the dice towards heavier rainfall in storms like these.

    How we know

    • Elsewhere in the article“close to record-breaking for this time of year”
    • On the recordThat warming has made hot extremes, heavy rainfall, agricultural and ecological drought, fire weather and intense tropical cyclones more frequent or more severe.ipcc.ch (opens in a new tab)

    Show it in the article

    Written straight

    The wind and rain, 100mm in 24 hours in some areas, caused travel chaos. Climate change is making heavy rainfall like this more frequent and more intense.

  2. Leaves out what changes the picture

    Minor

    What is missing

    The article lists power cuts, travel disruption, waves and fallen trees but never mentions that people died. Coverage published the following day reports that two men were killed by falling trees during Storm Boelo over the weekend. Without this, a reader takes the storm's toll to be disruption only. The coverage came out after this article, so it is not shown that the deaths were known when it was written.

    How we know

    Show where it belongs

How other outlets reported it

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