Severe Wind Storm late 26th-27th December

M.T. Cranium

Delighted to hear that one person saved some property from damage, even if the net result was ten or twenty such instances, that seems to make it worth the effort.

Wonder how Adam 88 in the house trailer made out? He stopped posting before we could get a location, having said he was quite frightened, have to imagine somewhere near the south or west coast. Also wondering how the farmer in Kerry fared, who posted just before the storm peaked that he was concerned about losing his sheds.

For me, the big impression of the storm was the pressure falls observed in the twelve hours from noon to midnight 26th, quite spectacular.

We can see from all the recent storms that a track coming some distance inland over the north would perhaps be the worst case scenario for a rapidly deepening low, so it's fortunate that this rarely happens, I think it did in Feb 1903 and Dec 1998 which were probably more damaging events in general terms.

Smidge

Just watched Martin on TV3 there and he said high winds on Tuesday.
Has anyone had a look at the charts yet for then?

aboyro

just watched sinead giving the forecast on RTE. Finner camp had a reading of 1115km last night, yes thats right 1115km. mad ted:D

Rikand

Smidge wrote: »

Just watched Martin on TV3 there and he said high winds on Tuesday.
Has anyone had a look at the charts yet for then?

Ireland is underneath the big purple area in the centre of this image, so it's another distinct possibility once again. - early days yet though.

Smidge

Rikand wrote: »

Ireland is underneath the big purple area in the centre of this image, so it's another distinct possibility once again. - early days yet though.

Oh no, not another purple blob
I know its too long range at the minute but I am reading the chart correctly in saying that when similar charts for last nights storm were up(the same time frame before hand) that Tuesdays chart doesn't look nearly as severe?

SpaceTime

Really shows the potential for wind power in Ireland

BorneTobyWilde

SpaceTime wrote: »

Really shows the potential for wind power in Ireland

Lets discuss that in great depth and drive the mods insane
jk!

M.T. Cranium

Smidge and Rikand, you are correct, if that map verified, winds would be only moderately strong, like 50-80 km/hr range. And yes the storm just ended was showing up quite strong on the charts at 96h. Here's what my outlook said on the morning of Sunday 22nd about the storm:

THURSDAY (St Stephens Day) and FRIDAY 27th ... At this point yet another very windy day or two seems likely with periods of rain in southwest gales, highs 8-10 C. Once again we are seeing a range of outcomes between a moderately stormy wind gust maximum of 100 km/hr to a severe storm reaching 150 km/hr. The chances of severe impacts are somewhat greater for the south than the north in much of the current guidance.

It should be noted that the past storm was already a major weather event in the eastern U.S. at that point.

I would currently be more concerned about any depictions of tight gradients around New Years Day because that will have the tidal maximum of a perigeean new moon. Lucky this past storm did not occur with those tides.

maquiladora

ECM is showing a low crossing Ulster next Friday bringing more windy conditions to the west coast : strong gale to storm force winds. Nothing too severe and it could easily vanish on the next run since it's a long way off.

hats199

Just drove from Cork to Galway and saw about ten fallen trees, one nasty car accident (unable to tell if it was attributable to the weather) and several incidents of deep spot flooding. My folks are now looking at their second night without electricity in Cork. All in all I'd be happy if storm season ended.

M.T. Cranium

Me too, I had to blend forecasting with Christmas here, most years I just take a five minute break to make sure the partly cloudy is staying partly cloudy.

Birroc

fontenoy7 wrote: »

I agree. Although the winds are still high and swirling in Dublin and elsewhere a RED coded alert should be used sparingly....it does not warrant such an alert----orange at best.

In the Philippines they had some sustained winds of over 400 km per hour..that is three and a half times the power of the winds we had last night.

We have a very small population so minimal loss of human life in general. Even in the UK and France where the storms are the same as here and no worse in terms of wind speed there is always a huge deal of sensationalism ... 3 dead in bold - Britain Battered ...give me a break (out of a population of 60 million plus in the UK and 70 million in France). I mean every death is a tragedy but in comparison to storms in parts of the US it is really tame in nature.

Wow the Philippines got 400km winds! Amazing. Really puts us in the haypenny place.

I felt last night was certainly wild but not especially so in Galway.

Birroc

Weathering wrote: »

To add to my earlier post of those stating it was the worst in the East since the 90's one has to look no further than Storm Kyrill Jan 2007
Wind gust of 80knots(148km/h) were recorded at Dublin airport here is the link http://www.met.ie/climate/MonthlyWeather/clim-2007-Jan.pdf

And to put last nights storm in to context

Here is a list of gusts recorded pre midnight 26/12/89 http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/weath...0&CEL=C&SI=mph

Post Midnight 27/12/89 http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/weath...0&CEL=C&SI=mph

Higher gust were achieved last week 18/12/13 http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/weath...0&CEL=C&SI=mph

And the non event storm of xmas eve highest gust came up 2miles per hour shorter than last nights wind http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/weath...0&CEL=C&SI=mph

Last nights wind totals are nothing exceptional 133km/h strongest met gust at a coastal location
Top 4 inland gusts recorded-Shannon airport 117km/h
Dublin airport 115km/h
Cork 109km/h
Casement 108km/h
The other inland stations scraped the 100km/h mark or didn't Balyhaise highest record 94km/h

I'm not for saying the storm wasn't bad for those effected by it buts nothing out of the ordinary for a typical Irish storm, perhaps its because it hit areas less used to them it seems worse than it actually was. I believe the longevity of mean speeds lead to this

What is the highest wind gust reported in Ireland at a coastal location?

Weathering

Birroc wrote: »

What is the highest wind gust reported in Ireland at a coastal location?

124mp/h(200km/h) Kilkeel County Down 12 January 1974

Birroc

Weathering wrote: »

124mp/h(200km/h) Kilkeel County Down 12 January 1974

Thanks. Incredible to think we were 67kph off that last night.

maquiladora

Weathering wrote: »

To add to my earlier post of those stating it was the worst in the East since the 90's one has to look no further than Storm Kyrill Jan 2007
Wind gust of 80knots(148km/h) were recorded at Dublin airport here is the link http://www.met.ie/climate/MonthlyWeather/clim-2007-Jan.pdf

And to put last nights storm in to context

Here is a list of gusts recorded pre midnight 26/12/89 http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/weath...0&CEL=C&SI=mph

Post Midnight 27/12/89 http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/weath...0&CEL=C&SI=mph

Higher gust were achieved last week 18/12/13 http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/weath...0&CEL=C&SI=mph

And the non event storm of xmas eve highest gust came up 2miles per hour shorter than last nights wind http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/weath...0&CEL=C&SI=mph

Last nights wind totals are nothing exceptional 133km/h strongest met gust at a coastal location
Top 4 inland gusts recorded-Shannon airport 117km/h
Dublin airport 115km/h
Cork 109km/h
Casement 108km/h
The other inland stations scraped the 100km/h mark or didn't Balyhaise highest record 94km/h

I'm not for saying the storm wasn't bad for those effected by it buts nothing out of the ordinary for a typical Irish storm, perhaps its because it hit areas less used to them it seems worse than it actually was. I believe the longevity of mean speeds lead to this

Everything is relative. At this location in the southeast yesterday's winds were the strongest in 16 years. My fence and a tree were both flattened (first 'damage' from any 'storm' since 97) and the howling of the gusts was something I know I haven't heard here since then. It was not close to being as strong as 97, but it was still the strongest winds here since then.

Birroc

maquiladora wrote: »

Everything is relative. At this location in the southeast yesterday's winds were the strongest in 16 years. My fence and a tree were both flattened (first 'damage' from any 'storm' since 97) and the howling of the gusts was something I know I haven't heard here since then. It was not close to being as strong as 97, but it was still the strongest winds here since then.

Not exactly meteorological facts. My fence disintegrated years ago because I didn't put any wood preservative on it .

maquiladora

Birroc wrote: »

Not exactly meteorological facts. My fence disintegrated years ago because I didn't put any wood preservative on it .

Dec 24 1997 was only a 980-975mb low yet Roche's point recorded sustained hurricane force winds.

The strong gusts here happened as the cold front passed over, precipitation levels were of different intensity all along the cold front so even 5 or 10km away would have different gust speeds.

My fence was disintegrated in about 5 minutes in a violent series of gusts that took the tree down too, I don't think preservative would have helped much to be honest.

whitebriar

Birroc wrote: »

Not exactly meteorological facts. My fence disintegrated years ago because I didn't put any wood preservative on it .

You put preservatives on your trees too :eek:

In all fairness though,arguing on the internet against the notion that this storm was the most dangerous in certain parts in recent years is pointless.
There is in my humble opinion no doubt that it was ,simply because it ticked 2 boxes,sustained and strong..
Driving in a storm long enough to weaken trees and bows of trees to have them collapse/fly about the place along with many other potentially dangerous missiles is not advisable and luckily that advice was heeded.
I've seen a fair few storms in my day and last night in the rural SE,large trees were bending over like rubber in howling gusts.
Not tornado alley Sure,but noteable .
Definitely not the worst but significantly dangerous countrywide.

Birroc

maquiladora wrote: »

Dec 24 1997 was only a 980-975mb low yet Roche's point recorded sustained hurricane force winds.

The strong gusts here happened as the cold front passed over, precipitation levels were of different intensity all along the cold front so even 5 or 10km away would have different gust speeds.

My fence was disintegrated in about 5 minutes in a violent series of gusts that took the tree down too, I don't think preservative would have helped much to be honest.

So do you have actual data supporting your assertion that last night recorded the highest wind speed in your area for 16 years?

Your words "It was not close to being as strong as 97, but it was still the strongest winds here since then." - can you prove this?

Mech1

Birroc wrote: »

So do you have actual data supporting your assertion that last night recorded the highest wind speed in your area for 16 years?

1 knockout punch could put you down
so could a sustained volley of lighter blows

Birroc

Mech1 wrote: »

1 knockout punch could put you down
so could a sustained volley of lighter blows

Irrelevant. I don't care how many trees, fences or roof slates were knocked/broken.
I am asking about wind speed records - meteorological records. Proven data.
I am asking whether last night broke any records, Weathering's post and RTE's reporting suggest not.
Ah forget it, I already know the answer.

maquiladora

Birroc wrote: »

So do you have actual data supporting your assertion that last night recorded the highest wind speed in your area for 16 years?

You got me. I'm just making all this up. Here's your Internet Gold Star.

Birroc

maquiladora wrote: »

You got me. I'm just making all this up. Here's your Internet Gold Star.

I accept it.


Don't post in this thread again

ZX7R

Probably get a warning or a ban for saying this ,but for the first time since joining boards i though i was on after hours forum not the weather forum the amount of s..t posts saying it wasnt a bad storm because... or it didn't happen here or it shouldn't have been a level tree, is unbelevable,it was one of the worst storms we have had in the east/south in at least 10 years thank fully no one was killed,maby some posters should have gone out today to see what damage was done instead of sitting in a warm room sitting with there pc's/iphone /tablets ect, posting how bad it wasn't

whitebriar

Birroc wrote: »

So do you have actual data supporting your assertion that last night recorded the highest wind speed in your area for 16 years?

Your words "It was not close to being as strong as 97, but it was still the strongest winds here since then." - can you prove this?

Heh,changing someone elses words to make your nit picking on the specifics of this storm last longer makes the discussion even more pointless because frankly it's barrel scraping,it's adding nothing.It looks like trolling and if that's the intention ,it's lock time.

maquiladora

Birroc wrote: »

I accept it.

Sorry mate, but I'm going to need to see actual data supporting that assertion.

M.T. Cranium

You've earned it.

This thread got 150 pages and 2245 posts, tells us something about what kind of weather event this was. I think we have a consensus, fairly memorable storm, worst in the south and locally near Galway Bay.

Sometimes when I look back at historical weather maps I have to wonder, how did that puny looking system do that much damage? I realize we don't see the intermediate hours, the upper air flow (real not simulated) and perhaps sometimes these maps don't have the dense grid of ocean reports that we now have either.

Or maybe without the secret programs of the NWO, the atmosphere used to move a lot quicker than it does now. Worth looking into, although not by me in this lifetime.
(I am kidding before we get a slew of quotes here)

ch750536

Been at this location for 10 years and without any doubt the heaviest battering in that time, by some distance.

Counted 12 trees down within 2 miles of the road down to town.

M.T. Cranium

ZX7R wrote: »

Probably get a warning or a ban for saying this ,but for the first time since joining boards i though i was on after hours forum not the weather forum the amount of s..t posts saying it wasnt a bad storm because... or it didn't happen here or it shouldn't have been a level tree, is unbelevable,it was one of the worst storms we have had in the east/south in at least 10 years thank fully no one was killed,maby some posters should have gone out today to see what damage was done instead of sitting in a warm room sitting with there pc's/iphone /tablets ect, posting how bad it wasn't

Good point in your typo there, it did level quite a few trees. :pac: