The shipping forecast was forecasting a pressure of 950 mb in some shipping areas so I checked our barometer early this afternoon and noticed it was very low at 962 mb.  I tried unsuccessfully to find the lowest recorded today in the British Isles but expect it was lower than this.   As the wind roared and whistled around the house with very heavy showers of rain we were glad that our friends had postponed travelling from England especially as the next couple of days sound bad with more gales, rain, sleet and perhaps snow.