Storm Barra - December 7th/8th 2021

OldRio

Yesterday the storm peaked at this location in Leitrim. Trees down at neighbouring farms. I was fortunate. Although I have one tree which is in a rather precarious position. I'll sort that out later.

Power went out at 2210 on Tuesday. Restored at 2230 on Wednesday. Over 24 hours without power. (Fair play to the ESB crews working out in that weather)

Wood burning stove was put to good use for heat and cooking. Candles and torches for light. Wind up battery for information. (Phone lines down and mobile masks effected)

Work still had to be done with the animals but that's what you have to do.

Met Eireann called this 100% correctly IMHO. Also great info on this board from the usual great posters. As for the nutters that frequent these threads, they wouldn't last a day living in the real world. That's why they live in their own world of make believe. Terribly sad really. Very lonely people.

A real bad storm. Very unusual in its length and direction of winds.

Macy0161

Interesting point of the phone mast - our reception is rubbish anyway, but if we lose power the mast goes down too. It's one of the reasons we've retained a phone line and a wired phone (not quite a dial, but still kinda blows the childrens minds!).

Just on the point above about South Wicklow - North Wicklow took a fair hammering too. About the only thing ME appeared to get wrong for me was not including Wicklow when they upgraded Dublin. Again, not necessarily on the stats but on the potential impact.

Irish Steve

What has been noticeable has been the effect of Storm Barra on the Irish Sea ferry sailings, and shipping in general. There was massive disruption to all routes, a considerable number of sailings were cancelled, and one of the normally reliable services (Holyhead Dublin) with Ulysses were and are still being impacted today (Thursday), Ulysses ended up being unable to get into Holyhead for over 16 hours, they attempted and failed to get in 3 times, they got in on the fourth try, and the eventual elapsed time for what is normally a 3 Hrs 15 crossing ended up as being close on 24 hours, with Stena services also being badly affected.

I suspect that wandering up and down off the coast of Anglesea for 16 hours was a very unpleasant experience, even at slow speed, the sea conditions would not have been good, we recently travelled on the smaller ship (Epsilon) on the same route in less disruptive weather conditions, and it was not a nice experience, we've been on Ulysses in poor weather on several trips, and on those occasions, it was not apparent that the weather was bad, so for Ulysses to be struggling, the conditions were extreme.

I can't remember a time when so many sailings were cancelled in the way that they have over the last few days. Up until midnight Dec 9th, winds were still blowing at 40 Kts from the NE at Holyhead, and the only way to get on to the Stena berth was to get the assistance of 2 tugs to prevent being blown sideways while reversing on to the berth. On the successful attempt for Ulysses to get it, they could not use tugs, and it took them close on 40 minutes to get the last 500 metres on to the berth, so it was clearly far from a normal berthing.

The media have not even mentioned the disruption to these sorts of services, they're more interested in finding branches broken off trees or trampolines caught on power wires, but I guess that delays to shipping is just not something they see as significant.

Hotblack Desiato

"MIDDLE AISLE SPECIALS IN JEOPARDY" perhaps?!?

Sure a few weeks back an Antonov-225 (largest plane in the world) made two trips from China to Ireland with Christmas crap items due to supply chain disruption. If the costs of that stack up, the margins on this stuff must be absolutely massive

josip

When I was younger, ferry passengers would think nothing of a 40 hour crossing.

"The disembarking passengers, mostly British tourists and Irish people returning from holidays seemed unaffected by their ordeal."

And RTE even covered it, so it must have been a proper storm.

https://www.rte.ie/archives/2021/0825/1242788-sealink-ferry-felicity/

🙂

typhoony

I thought calling Barra a Bomb was a bit over the top, if you want to see what a real system that you can definitely call a bomb take a look at the latest GFS chart for Sunday night and watch the rapid intensification over the space of a few hours of an innocuous looking low pressure system, fortunately I think it will just miss Ireland but by the time it reaches the outer Hebrides of Scotland winds are close to 100mph

typhoony

just to add there was a hint of caution from the bbc met Office, they know that it needs to be monitored closely

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118291230#Comment_118291230

It was bad out here but just one brief power cut thankfully. Localised. The length of Barra was unusual. There was a photo post on the online rte site on 8th. Malfunction on my laptop will not let me refer here but easy to find and very clear re the damaging storm it was in so many places.

West Mayo offshore

SouthWesterly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118299000#Comment_118299000

Glad you didn't get blown back to the orkneys grace 😁

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118299489#Comment_118299489

lol...Me too.... It would have been bad up there though... Same house styles as out here; heavy stone and low to the ground. Nothing damages them. Stone walls three feet thick. Lost a few chimney tops though.

bitterly cold now.

West Mayo offshore

speckle

Well a buzy couple of days power gone, water gone, some trees and branches down.. just finished mending a fence...but we weathered it well here..nothing like community spirit and good neighbours. Thankfully nothing at all like Kentucky.

RabbleRouser2k

Batten down the hatches if you're in the south. Yellow warning about strong winds that are coming close to Barra.

M.T. Cranium

Not too concerned about this incoming minor system, peak wind gusts in the 80-100 km/hr in exposed parts of the west perhaps, but little impact anywhere else, the low is only of moderate intensity when near Ireland, gets stronger up around northern Scotland and the Faeroes on Monday morning. These gusts will occur in the late afternoon to early evening up the west coast and in the later evening hours in Donegal. The gusts will subside rather quickly and Monday will be back to today's sort of wind speeds.

redsteveireland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118307874#Comment_118307874

Can the bingo card be expanded to include, "this is worse than Barra and its only a yellow, what a joke!"? This does feel worse than Barra as I didn't step out during Barra, but I had to step out today and did experience some strong gusts!

Discodog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118310767#Comment_118310767

I will decide as I am about to walk the dog, on the same route & at the same time. It sure sounds louder than Barra

StevenToast

It was windier today in limerick than it was during barra...

No shortage of people out walking and plenty of sliced pans in the shops...

Sure its a Sunday, you cant expect RTE to get too worked up of a Sunday....

Dr. Bre

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118311064#Comment_118311064

We need a snowstorm for the slice pans shortage

Discodog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118310984#Comment_118310984

Way stronger & lucky not to coincide with high tide in Galway.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118311064#Comment_118311064

So true. I remember the Stephens Day tsunami - there were no reports as RTE was shut.

SouthWesterly

Sitting on a mountain in North kerry and can't hear a thing outside. No wind here tonight

Pussyhands

We were in yellow warning which I just heard about today while hearing the winds. The winds were MUCH worse than when "Barra" came where I was in an orange warning and there was wall to wall coverage all over the news channels!

Just shows the media are just out to fear monger.

NIMAN

Same here Pussyhands.

Tonight's gusts are making the house creak, but nothing during Barra.

Odelay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118312554#Comment_118312554

But there is no red warning. What is your issue??

BTW its lovely and calm here. But then again, I'm not in an orange or even yellow warning area...

redsteveireland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118312554#Comment_118312554

The media don't set the warning levels so your point is a bit ,well pointless.

I was making the point that if a higher warning level is set then people are less likely to be out in it so might not really experience it, whereas with a yellow warning there is very little talk about it but you could still get gusts of up to 110Kmh.

Barra did bring destructive gusts to some areas, as I have seen many trees down as I have driven around Galway the last few days, Renville park is/was closed due to tree damage also, but as reported by one user in Tuam the stronger gusts didn't make it that far inland, that highlights the difficulty of a county wide warning.

The public love a good storm, particularly if its named, its the public that share the media coverage and comment on the stories and hence encourage them to keep spinning.

OldRio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118312554#Comment_118312554

Thoughts and prayers to you at this difficult time. Thoughts and prayers.

Dakota Dan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118291184#Comment_118291184

Check out who owns the media.

circadian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118314022#Comment_118314022

You're the one saying they're being paid for it. Why do I have to present the facts?

HeidiHeidi

The warnings for Barra were partly because of the duration of the storm - it took the guts of two days to cross the country - and the fact that the low hit Ireland directly, meaning that the wind direction changed for nearly everyone while the storm passed over the country. That's very unusual. Usually we get sideswiped by a low passing either north or south of the country, so only get winds from one(ish) direction.

The system the other day passed over very quickly, and did not pass directly over the country.

Met Eireann's warnings are about much more than just bald wind strength.

Dakota Dan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118314739#Comment_118314739

I didn’t ask you to present any facts I just steered you in the direction to look.

circadian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118315838#Comment_118315838

*eye roll*