Former Hurricane Humberto, Reborn As Storm Amy, Blasts UK With 96 MPH Winds

Storm Amy, which had its origins in Hurricane 
Humberto, slammed much of the UK with damaging
winds. Here, a derelict building crashed down on
a car in Glasgow, Scotland. 

The UK was just blasted by what used to be Hurricane Humberto. 

At least one death has been reported in Ireland, in what has been re-named Storm Amy by the UK Met Office.  

Gusts as high as 96 mph were reported in the Inner Hebrides, a group of islands off the west coast of Scotland.  Northern Ireland recorded its highest October wind gust on record, at 92 mph. 

Storm Amy also set a record for the deepest area of low pressure in the UK during the month of October. In general, the lower the air pressure at the center of a storm, the stronger the storm is. 

As of Saturday morning local time, 62,000 homes and businesses across Scotland were without power and another 22,000 had no electricity in Northern Ireland, the BBC reported. 

Winds were not as strong further south, but still gusty enough to be dangerous. All eight of London's royal parks closed Saturday and opening times will be delayed Sunday, says the BBC. 

This past week, Hurricane Humberto transitioned to what is know as an extratropical storm - which is basically they type of system most storms are.

Hurricane have warm core and no warm and cold fronts. Extratropical storms have colder cores and those weather fronts. Once hurricanes get far enough north and away from the warm water needed to feed them, one of two things will happen.

The hurricane might simply dissipate. Or, especially if there is another disturbance around, like a cold front, the dying hurricane might reinvent itself as a regular storm.  Since the storm had its origins in the tropics, that energy might be an added boost to the re-formed storm.

That's what happened to Humberto. It transitioned to an extratropical storm. The UK Met Office even gave it a new name - Amy - so we no longer call it be its dead name, which was Humberto.  (The Met Office gives names to the powerful storms that often sweep the UK, especially in the winter. ) 

Storm Amy took off into the North Sea today, so conditions were improving in the UK and Ireland.