A violent storm left hundreds of thousands of people without power in Ireland and threatened travel across Britain on Friday, the final blow to a weather pattern that has seen bitter cold and record snowfall in parts of the United States.
The storm, dubbed Eowyn, is expected to bring damaging winds throughout Friday, with the strongest winds expected in parts of Northern Ireland, southern Scotland and northern and western parts of England and Wales. Gusts of 60 to 70 mph are expected, with gusts of up to 100 mph possible across the Irish Sea and around the hills and coast of southwest Scotland.
Some forecast models show wind gusts of up to 120 mph on the west coast of the Republic of Ireland, equivalent to the sustained winds of a Category 3 hurricane.
By early Friday, the storm had brought record winds to the Irish coast. A gust of 114mph was recorded at Mace Head, County Galway at 5am, breaking the national record of 113mph set in 1945.
The winds were so strong that they apparently disrupted some reporting: “Strong winds disrupted data supplies from our weather stations in Belmullet, Macehead and Macri,” Met Eireann said on social media.
State-owned power company ESB Networks said on Friday morning that “extreme, damaging and destructive” winds had caused widespread damage to Ireland’s electricity network.
As of 6 a.m., more than 560,000 customers were without power. That’s almost a quarter of the approximately 2.4 million customers listed on ESB Networks’ website.
The intensity of Storm Iovine prompted the Met Office to issue the most severe red wind warning for Northern Ireland and central and south-western Scotland. “Conditions are extremely dangerous and will cause widespread damage and significant impacts,” it warned. It was the first red wind warning issued in Northern Ireland since the Met Office switched to impact-based warnings in 2011.
Paul Gundersen, chief meteorologist at the Met Office, said: “We reserve the right to issue red warnings for the worst weather, which can threaten lives and cause serious damage, such as Storm Iovine. Condition.
Met Éireann issued an equivalent top level wind warning across the country on Friday.
Rain and snow are also expected in the mountains of Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland.
Since 2015, the Met Office has been naming influential storms during autumn and winter with its storm naming partners Met Eireann, Met Ireland and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute. The storm’s name was chosen by the Netherlands Meteorological Office based on suggestions from the public.
The arctic storms and warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico that have swept across the United States in recent days have caused stark temperature contrasts, intensifying the jet stream, a high-altitude, fast-moving air stream that drives global weather patterns from west to east and often plays a critical role in Britain’s weather Have a positive impact.
The jet stream usually has speeds between 190 and 220 mph, but this week it strengthened to around 260 mph. Ireland strikes. The last time the UK experienced a storm of this intensity was Storm Darla in early December, which was also affected by a strong jet stream. The storm brought wind speeds of 93 mph in Wales.
Jet streams are also known for powering transatlantic flights, and are sometimes used by pilots to speed up journeys and save fuel. A flight from Las Vegas to London reached a ground speed of 814 mph on Wednesday, approaching the subsonic record of 835 mph set last February by a flight from New York to Lisbon.
In the United States this week, a harsh Arctic air mass plunged much of the country into dangerously cold conditions, bringing record-breaking temperatures not seen in decades and life-threatening wind chills.
Eowyn is expected to move into the Norwegian Sea on Saturday, making for dry, calm conditions that day. Another storm system is expected to bring similar dangers to the UK on Sunday and Monday.
Amy Graf and Kasim Nauman Contributed reporting.
