Hurricane Debbie 1961

[Timmytour]

I have always thought of this as the only hurricane to make landfall in the British Isles...... I'm not sure that is actually the case though?

A fascinating hurricane nonetheless with what seems to have been an unusual track, albeit the means of monitoring such systems back then were far from as comprehensive as they are today. I believe its existence was not known of after it had left Cape Verde until an aircraft on a transatlantic flight chanced upon it!

I saw the other day that we've been on the longest sustained runs of temperatures reaching such high levels since 1961.  It made me wonder whether the scene is set for another Hurricane Debbie to blow our way!

 

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/hurricane-debbie-high-winds-death-and-destruction-in-1961-1.3256985

Hurricane Debbie: high winds, death and destruction in 1961

Storm killed 11 in Ireland, including family of four whose car was crushed by a falling tree

Hurricane Debbie hit Ireland on the morning of Saturday September 16th, 1961, and caused the deaths of 11 people.

It had already caused a plane crash and the deaths of 60 people off the Cape Verde Islands when it began moving in Ireland’s direction.

According to Met Éireann, winds gusting over 110 miles per hour or 177km/h were recorded as the centre passed close to the southwest coast. And a gust of 113 miles per hour, almost 182km/h, was recorded at Malin Head, the joint highest gust ever recorded in Ireland, and the same as one recorded at Foynes, Co Limerick on January 18th, 1945, before the instrument pen went off the chart.

Damage to property was extensive over the western half of the country.

Debbie was unusual in developing into a hurricane so far east in the Atlantic, Met Éireann said.

Afterwards, it moved on to cause severe gales over Scotland, and the remains of the storm could be traced as far east as Russia towards the end of the month.

On Monday September 18th, 1961, The Irish Times reported the storm had killed 15 people on the island of Ireland.

‘Crushed to seat level’

Deaths occurred due to falling walls, trees and debris as well as drowning. Four members of one family, driving in Cavan, died when an ash tree fell across their car and the roof was “crushed to seat level”.

A man was killed while sitting on a bench outside a Dublin hospital when a branch fell on him; another man died in Navan when a wall collapsed on him and a man in Fermanagh died when part of a roof blew off and hit him on the neck.

Many other people were treated for injuries caused by falling trees and slates, and one hospital in Northern Ireland treated 48 people.

Fishing boats were blown ashore at Dingle, Co Kerry and small crafts sunk in various harbours.

Meteorologists have also drawn comparisons between Ophelia and Storm Darwin, which hit Ireland in February 2014.

During that storm, the Kinsale gas platform off the Cork coast was hit by a 25m-high wave, Shannon Airport recorded a maximum gust of 160km/h (99 mph), and more than 215,000 homes lost power. There was also extensive coastal flooding and damage to buildings. Up to 7.5 million trees were blown down – between 5,000 and 7,000 hectares of forestry.

 

[philglossop]

The one ex Hurricane which always comes to mind is Hurricane Charley from August 1986. Now that was miserable August Bank Holiday! 

[Polar Bears in Doncaster]

Yes hurricane Charley...

...our wedding day!!!

Remember that one well

[BruenSryan]

60 years ago today...

[Derecho]

Similar to Ophelia (2017) by the sounds of it. Was probably an extra-tropical hurricane (ie. it had started wrapping some cooler air around it and developed frontal bands of rain).

I do wonder how strong a hurricane could be if it hit the UK... there would need to be a big high over southern/central Europe bringing warm air from the sub-tropical Atlantic to bring a storm our way. Ophelia was actually very close to being a hurricane on landfall and was still a hurricane in the Bay of Bscay I think.

Though what was remarkable about Ophelia was that it occurred later in October when SSTs are a few weeks past their peak (typically late August to mid-September). How strong could it have been under peak SSTs?

[staplehurst]

New paper recently published in Weather, with free access:

https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/wea.4057

[A Face like Thunder]

I do not remember Debbie in 1961, having just started back at grammar school in Surrey. And Charley?  I was in Scotland where it was not a bank holiday and climbing Ben Lomond on a calm dry day. Probably one of the best examples of the folly of transferring the Bank Holiday in E & W from the start of August (as in Scotland) to the end!