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Storm Eowyn brings over 100mph winds to Ireland, northern UK next

Storm Eowyn is the most powerful windstorm to hit the British Isles in decades. The storm has already brought a 114mph gust to western Ireland and will bring hurricane-force winds to parts of Scotland over the coming hours.


Issued: 24th January 2025 10:45

The centre of Storm Eowyn is off the west coast of Scotland at 9am, with a central pressure around 941 hPa, the low looks to have bottomed out around 938 hPa off NW Ireland earlier this morning. It’s rare for lows within waters and islands of the British Isles for central pressures to fall below 940 mb, with only five reliably recorded occasions of pressures below 940 mb on the mainland British Isles in 200 years of reliable measurements.

 


Satellite imagery suggests a ‘sting jet’ punching in across western and northwestern Republic of Ireland over the last few hours, with a gust of 114mph at Mace Head at 5am and a sustained wind of 81mph, which beat the previous record high of 113mph set in January 1945 in Foynes, Co Limerick. Since then, the anemometer has apparently stopped working, so higher gusts can’t be ruled out afterwards. More than 715,000 homes are without power in Ireland, while there are multiple reports of roofs being blown off properties. Irish Water is urging people in Ireland to conserve water, as they could face supply issues due to the storm.


A sting jet is a narrow core of very strong winds with gusts often over 100mph associated with dry air descending from the upper troposphere, that increases momentum as it reaches the surface near the tip of the cloud head at the end of the bent-back warm front. It usually occurs when the low pressure system is reaching its maximum phase of deepening.

The entire island of Ireland is under Red Warnings for wind, for N. Ireland - the Met Office Red Warning is in force from 7am through to 2pm and warns of gusts of 80-90mph widely and up to 100mph along exposed coasts. Police in Northern Ireland have declared a major incident and said they expect the strongest winds in the region since the Boxing Day storm in 1998 which caused widespread disruption.

This swathe of very strong winds over NW Ireland will shift northeast across Northern Ireland and SW Scotland through the morning. Already a gust of 86mph and sustained wind of 61mph at Dundrennan in Dumfries and Galloway.

The worst of the winds will affect the southwest and central belt of Scotland from late morning and through the afternoon - with a rare Red Warning coming into force from 10am and warns of peak gusts of 80-90mph with up to 100mph along western coasts. 


4.5million people in Scotland and Northern received an alert on their phones yesterday, warning them to stay indoors. Residents have been urged to stay at home while schools have been closed and people warned not to travel on Friday, with all Scot Rail services suspended today, Glasgow and Edinburgh airports are only running limited flights with many cancelled, while all ferries are suspended. Major bridges will either close entirely or be closed to high-sided vehicles.  Police Scotland have also urged people not travel by car. Already an estimated 10,000 people are without power in Ayrshire, East Lothian, Falkirk, the Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway due to the high winds.


Strongest winds should finally ease away north from Scotland later this evening. It will stay windy at times over the weekend with showers at times, wintry over high ground in the north and west. However,  a new area of Low pressure is already developing south of Nova Scotia underneath another powerful 200mph+ jet core coming out of North America. The low, like Eowyn, will move on to the polar side of the jet stream then deepen in the developmental left exit of the jet over the mid-North Atlantic before approaching Ireland.


However, there is uncertainty over track and when the low reaches its deepest phase, but it seems most likely the low will not be as deep as Eowyn and will track east across Ireland then over England and Wales, bringing strongest winds further south on Monday. Further warnings will likely be issued and based on forecast gusts from 00z ECMWF it could become the next named-storm - with strong wind impacts further south this time. Also heavy rainfall could be an issue for the south and west with this new system. We’ll keep you updated.

For rolling commentry on Storm Eowyn, there is thread on the storm in the Netweather Forum

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