⚠️ Storm Éowyn - Fri 24.01.25 (**Please read Mod Instruction in OP.**)

Athenry is not in the table because it has records only back to 2010 so it would be pointless to include for just 2 storms and the rest all N/A.

from what I was told they are in need of lots of replacement parts from abroad, I guess they repair with what they have and return to other places when they have the parts.

i was also told isolated homes will be the last to reconnect with some places not back until early march. I pray and hope nobody is waiting that long!

Cheers for the reply. Not sure it answers the questions as to how areas are picked to be restored. A fella I work with had next saturday as a provisional restoration date; he got the power back last monday evening. That's annoying, I have to admit. And, of course, there'll be no compensation for being without power for nearly 15% of this billing period. As for your isolated homes point, I totally get it. I live in a rural area, but I wouldn't say I'm isolated. There must be 70 or so customers within a mile or so radius of me.

Was talking to someone this morning who lives above a local water source. Water needs pumped to him.

Fair enough. So back boiler stoves need good mains pressure (edit: to keep attic water tank full) to use with no electric (edit: in a gravity system with hot water tank above stove).

Could another option be to somehow refill your attic water tank? Maybe there are people still with no electric who could be doing this.

Its hassle but I reckon Id do it to at least get heat + baths / showers.

The storm itself was devastating in some areas. I don't think people are quite understanding how bad this was. The relationship between wind speed and kinetic energy is not just simple linear - it's more like exponential. So, when the windspeed goes up the amount of energy being applied to objects like trees, houses, power lines etc goes way up.

Then there are various tipping points where materials break which happen quite suddenly and at particular levels of energy and then you've also issues like frequency of gusts. How much wind direction shifted around and so on during the storm.

It's not just a case of 100km/h wind is half as bad as as 200km/h wind - it's more like the scale used for earthquakes.

Also the other big factor is just Ireland's population in some areas is EXTREMELY scattered by any comparison. It's quite an outlier in this regard and that's almost worst case scenario for infrastructure. It's not one off, remote here and there - it's tons of low density housing all just that bit too far apart, making it need vastly more wiring and a lot of small scale installations.

We have something like 6X the European average length of wiring between a house and the power network and that's an average, so urban areas (i.e. towns, cities and villages) are normal and rural / quasi rural stuff is dragging those averages way up.

When you look at something like water infrastructure - it means needing lots more small plants, pumping stations, storage facilities etc that are dependent on electrical power to operate. Pumps stop, storage stops filling, water pressure starts to drop after a few days. There is a contingency in most of them in terms of gravity storage usually, but once that goes - you start running out.

Likewise for broadband infrastructure - there huge amounts of lines and edge layer network serving relatively tiny numbers of scattered customers.

Then after all of that, we are also not looking at like for like on restore times. Urban areas, and small towns and villages included will just get put back online faster as they're significant population clusters severe from medium voltage (20/38kV lines).

Also in areas hit by similar kinds of wind in the US you can be talking anything from a few hours to several weeks for restoration. It's not that unusual to take this long in a storm that bad.

I'm seeing comparisons to places like Germany which basically don't get Atlantic wind storms like this -and have way denser population spread i.e. it's actually clustered and not just flung at random in the countryside.

Sorry if this is a bit of a rant, but I am finding Irish discussion are venturing into the "Oh we're a bunch of hopeless moronic incompetents" - We're not and the ESB certainly isn't.

It's also not at all unusual for European power companies to assist each other in situations like this - ESB Networks has assisted in the UK and France etc in exactly the same way when they've been hit with this kind of thing.

For the areas badly hit by this it's a full blown natural disaster - winds were beyond anything we're normally used to dealing or have designed for, and it needs to be recognised as such by commentary.

Back boilers very much depend on what the layout of the system is, not so much the mains pressure as they don't run on mains typically at all. They're usually fed by gravity storage in the attic and aren't normally pressurised.

The ones that work on gravity only i.e. without a circulation pump are usually very old and often only supplied stored hot water for the 'hotpress'.

The only boilers that will cause issues without mains pressure are combi systems plumbed directly to the mains - and while officially speaking, you're not supposed to do that in Ireland, quite a lot of them exist and work fine in normal circumstances - they're more likely in urban areas though.

The main issue to be very aware of with back boilers is damaging the boiler itself by running it dry.

Also if there's an old back boiler that's not plumbed up, that can be utterly lethal - there have been cases of those exploding where someone's idiotically blanked the boiler off and left it in place. It's more of an issue where someone decides to reactivate a long abandoned fireplace to keep warm.

My friend got reconnected last night. His brother spoke to his friend in the esb, turns out it was just a fuse not lines down, took a couple of minutes for the esb to fix it.

I forgot to add that this video is from Athenry golf course after the storm.
Hundreds of trees down. I wonder could any of the trees be saved? The course will feel very bare without the trees.

Athenry Golf course

Thanks, I know it’s a lot of effort making a table like that so fair play to you. Eowyn was most certainly in the red at Athenry Weather Station and would’ve added to those statistics re Red weather stations but I can totally understand not including it with it being a relatively new weather station.

Weather question from someone who is still off grid - are there any stats to tell is Eowyn brought tornadoes? Where I have most damage is in a line through the forest, across my field into my shed and out its windows, as if something swept through - there must be the better part of a 30 year old pine forest completely floored. I know gusts were extremely high - but could there have been mini tornadoes, some like the one that hit Leitrim in. December 2023 (I'm south sligo)

As has been said there are different systems so it can depend but imo I wouldn't be waiting until I hear the pipes banging as a general rule. I agree with keeping the fire low after it gets going.

Famous golf course architect Robert Trent Jones jnr said that on golf courses “Trees can function like an instrument. Removing them limits the range of music you can make”.

Golf clubs across the island are left facing the music of the aftermath of an unprecedented storm.

Rang ESB Networks for update after hearing this man this am- My area will be restored on the 5th of Feb according to the guy I spoke too they are waiting for a part for a transformer that is coming from the UK and will take up to a week!

Me too. Solid fuel cooker, stanley super 90. I lit mine the other day with a few turf and sticks. Kept the fire very low and after a few hours had a magical feeling shower. My wife later managed to have a bath. Worked for us for 3 days. Power is back with us now since, so back to normal with oil and heating, but we managed well and could cook on it too.

Noticed those linear paths of damage here too, where literally every tree/fixture in the path was torn from its roots

This is a question for the knowledgeable types of here. Were there any reports or evidence of tornados or whirlwinds forming in this storm. I have seen a mini "tornado" form in a hurricane and remove the fence line and every object in its path behind the house I was staying in . There were local media reports of many mini tornadoes at the time.

Would this account for the sometimes straight line paths of destruction we have seen and the fact that some trees are snapped in half while a very short distance away weak structures like old farm sheds damaged in storm Darragh are untouched. Or is this something normal in severe storms?

I think there has to have been a sting jet or mini tornadoes or something. Parts of Longford were hammered while other areas hadn't much impact at all, and the strongest gusts recorded at the nearest stations in the area were 100-110kmh which, while unusual for the location, would not do the damage that was done there.

I would imagine that is due to a "domino effect". Once one tree falls onto the next it will cause much more force for the "recipient" tree both due to the extra weight and now they are essentially two trees taking the wind force but with only one trunk standing. This tends to happen in a straight line along the direction of the wind. The first trees to fall are usually on poor roots due waterlogged or rocky ground, and the chain reaction spreads downwind.

I've seen the aftermath of similar treefalls a good few times in Coillte forests over my years.

It does seem odd that right away on Friday, it was being reported that records were broken for sustained gusts over a 10 minute period and just for strongest gust. The ESB said close to a million properties lost power and it was the worst they have dealt with…all of this talk about it being the worst but it feels like the interest in it as a story didn't even make it 3 days. Stories about the storm fell to 5th or 6th most read on the RTE website. The approach from Government + the fact our leaders were travelling as the fallout from the storm was happening and some of the councils response simply equated to other storms rather than an exceptional natural disaster. It feels like, if anything it is being downplayed by everyone but those who were in its direct path…

Yeah maybe not, but not just "knocking", also the force of another tree leaning on it, essentially doubling the force of the wind on one tree's trunk could snap it? Just a theory. I don't think tornadoes could have been a factor, they couldn't have formed in those conditions. But possibly some stingjet madness alright.

I will say the downplaying sucks. Even from a Dublin POV there was a lot of damages in my area alone, it just didn't strike the power so 'all is fine and dandy'.

My heart goes out to those still without electricity, or had bad damages on their property, you're all so strong <3

Here's some photo's I collected over the last few days of the storm in Dublin

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFSdnD5Onft/?igsh=dGl3Ym5mdnhqdzBr

Small bit of the damage

How do you embed Instagram vids?

I think many of the reports were hampered by travel, as well. Fallen trees, roads impassible. No way to contact locals due to phones and mobile networks being down. It took a good few couple of days for the major stories to emerge, especially with no electricity. Then a lot of presenters are still on their winter holidays, and playing 'best of' shows in the meantime. So the coverage has been restricted there too.

The last paragraph is spot on. It's all about the money.

We were without power for 3 days and that was long enough. The house was freezing. The temperature in the house got down to 12.5°. There are some in the area that still haven't got power back.

The whole situation still feels raw and national and local government need to hang their heads in shame. There was no mobile data so we had no access to the Internet. Like many others we had to drive out of the area to log the fault and get a hot meal. Was hoping local radio would provide some information that would be useful but it was all just general "we're working hard to get services reconnected blah blah blah, check with powercheck to see the latest info". The local Supermacs plaza saved the day providing power points to charge batteries and hot food, no Internet service though so had to travel further out for that.

Community hubs were eventually set up on Tuesday which in my mind was 2 days too late, that should have been up and running over the weekend.

Will definitely have gas heaters and gas cooker in for next winter.

Even now TD's are just telling people what they already know like what areas still have no power and what areas have no water. I'm pretty sure people are well aware of these facts. Nothing about the financial support being offered. I feel they are using the information being given out as a PR exercise for them.

I'm angry for myself and everyone else who suffered last weekend.

That poor woman on RTE last night who's entire roof came off. Solid brick just ripped clean off. Has to have been a stingjet/tornado.

There's a gofund me for anyone who saw it and wants to donate, she has no house insurance as family home that's been there over a century.