Atlantic Storm Watch: December 2013

ednwireland

Drove donegal to belfast 4am nothing like wed night bit of snow round omagh

Jambo

2 Webcams from Dunmore East here to watch the sea state

http://www.dunmoreadventure.com/content/blogcategory/18/35/

Bear in mind at the time of posting its only half tide and the flow is with the wind, once the tide turns after 0930 (probably later due to winfd influence)and the current is against the wind it should get very choppy here.

acassells80

Wind has died down and no snow

dopolahpec

Definitely not as severe as it may have been. Unless there's more to come. Looks like Friday won't pose a severe threat either based on current output. Windy and rainy yeah but not a major storm.

kingshankly

Hardly a breeze in Dundalk

Weathering

Heavy snow & breezy this morning. No gusts of note as of yet(Donegal)

kerrycork13

What location for snow

aisling86

Macroom.co.cork. woke to crazy hailstones!

horsefarm

I look like an idiot now. Have been warning people to batten down the hatches and avoid unnecessary travel. All for a bit of wind and no snow

Cuddled

Cuddled wrote: »

Yeah. Worst has passed til fri

Well I stand by my earlier post

irishmotorist

horsefarm wrote: »

I look like an idiot now. Have been warning people to batten down the hatches and avoid unnecessary travel. All for a bit of wind and no snow

Don't be too hard on yourself. Met Éireann still have a nationwide orange weather warning in place until 18:00 this evening.

winterwonder

horsefarm wrote: »

I look like an idiot now. Have been warning people to batten down the hatches and avoid unnecessary travel. All for a bit of wind and no snow

Me too!! Wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be, spent all day yesterday checking for updates and warning everyone of how bad it'll be, thanks to everyone for the input though, it was great to follow...... Now I'm off to start prepare for christmas dinner for tomorrow!!

RuthieRose

Just woke to snow on the ground 😆 Its Christmas 😆😆😆

force eleven

Wasn't bad at all here. The squall last week was worse. Don't think Fridays event is going to be too bad either but we'll see. The low pressure readings were the most interesting thing about this.

dopolahpec

force eleven wrote: »

Wasn't bad at all here. The squall last week was worse. Don't think Fridays event is going to be too bad either but we'll see. The low pressure readings were the most interesting thing about this.

I agree. Friday's looks to be filling out by the time it hits Ireland

irish1967

Non event here in Donegal Town really. It's windy but nothing special.

ninebeanrows

Bit if a damp squib this one. Pressure field buckled out with the secondary feature.

Major concern now is people will dismiss Friday's feature which looks quite menacing this morning!

Windiest weather this morning yet to hit the east coast, still think some 50-60kt gusts for Dublin region soon.

adamski8

Did ME not get this spot on?

Pangea

No big wind here overnight either. M.T. says "Eventually the strongest wind gusts of the event will develop around mid-day across the north and parts of the west."

M.T. Cranium

Primary low has actually made it to 930 mb (ship report near 58N 11W at 07z) and the secondary seems to have broken up into several swirls but this has caused an area of less intense winds that will reduce gusts for several hours as it moves across the north, to be absorbed into the main circulation around mid-day. This could give the impression that the storm has ended but it's more like a half-time rest, I would expect that daytime's better mixing of the atmosphere may combine with a stronger gradient behind the secondary to produce an eventual maximum for the north around mid-day and afternoon hours. Galway Bay has been rather windy through the night and could see a peak later this morning. Some parts of the east are being sheltered by a combination of slack gradients and the mountains, and a few people reading this may never get any significant wind gusts from the event.

Probably the bigger hazard to driving will be squally wintry showers, fairly widespread this morning in the inland portions of the western half of the country. There could be some heavy falls of hail as well as sleet or snow and winds could gust near some of these showers leading to rapid changes in visibility. I would say drive with extreme caution if your route takes you through the inland west and north.

The models are still aggressive on the 27th event, that one takes a much more southerly track until just before the longitude of Cork and Galway, so when it cuts north the full energy of the storm will hit most of the country, and this time it's a dynamic system with strong fronts instead of this steady-state complex wind field we are dealing with today.

Later today, whether the storm has been underperforming or not, the gradient does look quite severe over north Ulster and so it will come down to how the remnants of this secondary feature are behaving -- the models all seem to consolidate the flow by 12z and as some here have commented, you normally see maximum gusts with rising barometric pressure in the wake of a strong low. The 945 to 960 mb segment of the circulation looks strongest from 0900h to 1800h and that is dragged slowly north across Ulster.

Anyone with flight plans involving Glasgow or Edinburgh can probably expect problems later today as Scotland will be increasingly affected by storm force gusts once the flow turns more westerly. Scotland does not do southerly winds very well because almost all populated areas there are well shielded from the south, but once the winds turn past WSW then that protection disappears and in fact a bit of a wind tunnel effect develops across the central lowlands.

DOCARCH

adamski8 wrote: »

Did ME not get this spot on?

I think so. Their cautious approach was warranted. No point unecessarily panicking people and their Christmas plans.

kingshankly

Fair play to met eireann got it spot on again
Didn't pan out the way a lot of people on here expected but hey that's weather for ya

M.T. Cranium

Oh, forgot to mention, the wind reports from the M6 buoy since 06z are very likely a malfunction, 2 kts seems to be the typical wind report of ocean buoys that are tilted over on their sides. The M6 has done this before, 9-11 m waves have been reported most of the night. The K4 buoy has rather moderate westerly winds as this secondary trough passes. Pressures there bottomed out around 949 mb.

dopolahpec

Looking at Friday's storm as modelled it doesn't appear to have that tight organisation to deliver something vicious. But I could be wrong. It has definitely moved further north on the track being modelled too. I'm travelling again on Friday so I have a bit of selfish reason to hope it's another nearly job.

RoisinD

Some on here saying it wasn't that bad - maybe for you it wasn't but to dismiss this as nothing is highly insulting to those who put so much effort in keeping us informed and alert to any changes that may occur. You also may have not been listening to the news this morning where they mentioned debris on the road and specifically mentioned the amount of overturned cars. I am aware of one driver I know having their Range Rover blown across the road and into a ditch.

I am well used to storms living near the Atlantic and I can say that these current winds are as bad as any in the past few years. Not only that but the wind has been blowing strong now since 8.00pm last night and is still as strong as ever. No let up yet.That is over 12 hours of strong winds. The only saving grace is that there has been very little squalls due to the lack of hail/rain hitting us here during the night. We are well used to securing items and locking them away but have had to go out twice during the night to move and or secure items even further.
Just remember just because it is not affecting where you are that it is not elsewhere.

A very big thank you to all who dedicate their time and effort to keeping us updated. You are very much appreciated and long may you continue to sharing your knowledge and info.

NW Clare

dopolahpec

RoisinD wrote: »

Some on here saying it wasn't that bad - maybe for you it wasn't but to dismiss this as nothing is highly insulting to those who put so much effort in keeping us informed and alert to any changes that may occur. You also may have not been listening to the news this morning where they mentioned debris on the road and specifically mentioned the amount of overturned cars. I am aware of one driver I know having their Range Rover blown across the road and into a ditch.

I am well used to storms living near the Atlantic and I can say that these current winds are as bad as any in the past few years. Not only that but the wind has been blowing strong now since 8.00pm last night and is still as strong as ever. No let up yet.That is over 12 hours of strong winds. The only saving grace is that there has been very little squalls due to the lack of hail/rain hitting us here during the night. We are well used to securing items and locking them away but have had to go out twice during the night to move and or secure items even further.
Just remember just because it is not affecting where you are that it is not elsewhere.

A very big thank you to all who dedicate their time and effort to keeping us updated. You are very much appreciated and long may you continue to sharing your knowledge and info.

NW Clare

My personal opinion is that it wasn't that bad. That shouldn't be taken as an insult. It's not to the detriment of anyone who was predicting possible severe outcomes. These things are very unpredictable once they get close. But there's certainly nothing insulting about commenting on an event that has occurred. It really wasn't that bad, not as irish storms go.

It could get worse yet today. Let's wait and see.

Lumi

Experiencing some of the strongest winds of this event in Galway city atm
Wind speed 38mph
Mean 31mph
Gust 58mph
Barometer 959.94 hPa Falling -0.65 hPa/hr

inocybe

It's been a dreadful night in Mayo, and still very bad. I was hoping to travel in the lull before the midmorning peak, but there doesn't seem to be any lull. Is there one coming? I don't think I want to drive in this.

ninebeanrows

Interesting looking at the NAE, the actually gradient across the country now is much less than was forecast yesterday. It has been downgraded each run since yesterday.

So even though very windy this morning, expectations from the models just yesterday were
for something more severe.


Gradient @ Todays 6z for 9am



Gradient @ Yesterday's 6z for 9am

RuthieRose

The Galway Advertiser Facebook page is reporting strong winds, trees down and accidents on the motorway so I still wouldn't take this as a non event. I'm in Cavan for the Christmas and we have a sprinkling of snow in the ground but the sky looks full of more (might not fall as that). Stay cautious on the roads folks. Don't become complacent just because it looks ok. That may not be the story. We have enough fatal road collisions for one year. Merry Christmas.

Snowing again in Cavan town.