A rare red weather warning is in force across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly as Storm Goretti unleashes extreme and dangerous conditions, with reports of waves reaching up to a hundred feet offshore. The Met Office alert, active from 4pm until 11pm on Thursday, January 8, 2026, has prompted emergency alerts on mobile phones and forced widespread closures.
Battening Down the Hatches
Across the county, communities are hunkering down. All schools in Cornwall were closed early, sending children and staff home. In Porthleven, seafront streets emptied as the storm intensified. James Kitto, a 57-year-old primary school teacher, described the scene as "getting pretty wild out there." He witnessed "huge, absolutely huge" waves crashing into the port from a safe distance. "I am going to bunker down indoors," he said. "The wind is just getting stronger and stronger. I just had to tie down my wheelie bin. Being killed by a council wheelie bin has to be up there as one of the worst ways to die."
He urged others to take extreme caution: "Stay indoors, stay safe. You never know what the wind can do, it could pull tiles down from roofs and get really dangerous out there. It is wild." Reflecting on the storm's ferocity, Kitto added, "It is as bad as I have seen for years."
The Pub Defying the Storm
While most businesses shut their doors, one establishment in Port Severn decided the show must go on. The Mussel Shoal brewery held its open mic night despite the tempest raging outside. Owner Kelvin Bacc reported that about 25 customers had braved the conditions within just 30 minutes of opening.
"We're quite used to storms down in Port Severn because we're the only westerly facing harbour in the whole of the UK," Bacc explained. "So I don't think this has affected us as much as it has in other places. It is really howling. But because we're in the shipyard it's not been too bad. We're just setting up for open mic night and you can hear it rattling around in the roof." He concluded, "The storm has really, really, got a hold of Cornwall, that's for sure."
Businesses Forced to Close
For many others, the storm's danger was too great to remain open. A spokesperson for The Ship Inn in Porthleven confirmed they had to close. "It's real bad," they said. "We've all had to close down. The staff have all had to go home. The locals have had to lock-in and we can't take any money because the locals said that the phone masts are down."
Similarly, The Square restaurant in Porthleven made the decision to shut. "It's really windy, all the tables and chairs in front of the restaurant had blown away so we made the call to shut," the director said. Staff were sent home for their safety. The restaurant remains on standby for Friday, but the director admitted, "we don't know where we stand."
With the red warning in place until late evening, authorities continue to urge residents to avoid travel and stay indoors as Storm Goretti continues its assault on the Cornish coast.
