1961: The year of Hurricane Debbie

billy the squid

for the meteorological historians out there.

Now that hurricanes Katrina and Rita are out of the news, Martin Gormally of Carraroe recalls the impact of the 1961 Hurricane Debbie in the west of Ireland.

Now that hurricanes Katrina and Rita have blown themselves out and a big clean-up is underway in the USA we turn our thoughts to the horrific hurricane that hit the west of Ireland in September 1961.
Country people will recall mini-cyclones that occurred frequently during the summer haymaking season, lifting cocks of hay or clamps of turf into the air carrying them for a distance before dropping them hack to ground again.
Older people called these sídhe gaoithe or fairy winds. They paled into insignificance when compared with Hurricane Debbie.

http://www.sligoweekender.ie/news/story/?trs=cwojkfmhey

Sponge Bob

Debbie was the most powerful Autumn storm in living memory, maybe not the wettest but certainly the windiest . The leaves were on the trees when it hit which meant they were felled all over.

It would have been a tropical storm or a category one maybe .

The daddy of them all was a winter storm. Oiche na Gaoithe Móire in 1839 ...later guesstimated as a Catagory 3 Hurricane equivalent .

Zzippy

Its clearly still remembered well in rural Ireland. The gf had cousins over visiting from England last week, lets just say obese would be a compliment to this family. Another uncle from the other side of the family came in, said hello, and wandered out to the kitchen where the lads were having dinner after saving hay and says "Jaysus, Debbie wouldn't shift them!"

Deep Easterly

These charts were posted up on TWO last year by Mr Data. Shows the path of the storm nicely:





Listening to stories of this storm by my older relations in North Galway, it certainly must have been a biggy. It also apparently hit very suddenly. My grandfather's hay was destroyed, at least what was left of it! (there was a late harvest that year going by reports). My grandmother recalls hearing a thundering noise about an hour before the wind hit. It was also a market day in Tuam, and because the wind hit so suddenly and strongly, there was much damage to market stalls and buildings. A forest just north of the town was totally felled by the storm. One guy reckons he seen trees fall like dominos at the storms peak!

Timistry

How come the pressure in the eye is so high? I thought it would be below 960mb, around 945mb say. Same thing with Hurricane Charley in 1986