What's the Worst Ireland Could get ?

irish1967

Just looking at a picture and comment in another thread showing Ireland the most northerly country on earth with no snow and it just made me wonder.

What is the worst weather we could theoretically get here in Ireland ? Ok Australia had a giant cyclone. USA had a giant snow storm. What would our worst case scenario weather be. ( being somewhat realistic)

irish1967

Typing on my phone managed to spell WORST wrong in the title ! Grrrrr

Brenireland

irish1967 wrote: »

Typing on my phone managed to spell WORST wrong in the title ! Grrrrr

That's ok,your lucky,I was going to make a smart arshed comment with regards that gaff.

Pangea

We already have the worst weather , mild and wet for 80% of the year :pac:

Nice question though, I was wondering that myself, could we get a cyclone etc.
If you said a year or two ago that we would have had two extremely cold winters then you could call that unrealstic so who knows what the future holds!
Seems that hurricane force winds like yesturday/today and the cold blasts of winter from the arctic are about the "worst" you could hope for.

Mothman

Where were the hurricane force winds?

Pangea

Mothman wrote: »

Where were the hurricane force winds?

Donegal 140km winds (117km is hurricane force)

Mothman

Pangea wrote: »

Donegal 140km winds (117km is hurricane force)

Thats a gust.
The beaufort force is based on 10 minute means, so probably storm force 10, or perhaps force 11 which would give gusts to 140k

Pangea

Mothman wrote: »

Thats a gust.
The beaufort force is based on 10 minute means, so probably storm force 10, or perhaps force 11 which would give gusts to 140k

Oh ok, thanks for that. Hurricane force gusts then

irish1967

Biggest danger I always imagined was a tsunami (I know not weather). There's a lot of water to our west and I would imagine that's the direction whatever worst would come from.

fizzycyst

In 1893 Ireland experienced one of the worst storms ever to the country. It was a long time ago.....maybe we're due another one of these :eek:

http://www.irishweatheronline.com/weather-history/oidhche-na-gaoithe-moire-%E2%80%9Cthe-night-of-the-big-wind%E2%80%9D.html

Mayo Exile

Ireland could theoretically be struck by a hurricane (very small chance of it happening though) depending on how quick it would cross the Atlantic before it would inevitably change into an extra-tropical system. Depending on who you believe, Debbie moved up the west coast of Ireland as either a tropical cyclone or an extra-tropical feature on September 16 1961.

Wikipedia article

Boards thread.

morticia2

There was also Hurricane Charlie, wasn't there?? 1980s sometime?

Re tsunamis, there is some evidence that one struck the SW UK in the 1600s, made it as far inland as Gloucester.

There is also Cuimbre Vieja, a volcano on one of the Canary islands that is likely to lose one side of the volcano flank into the Atlantic the next time it erupts. It has been estimated that this could cause a tsunami of many hundreds of feet in the local area, should it all give way at once. A tsunami of 25 metres could make it as far as the US east coast, while a curving rebound could end up affecting us.

morticia2

Another thought; the eruption of the Laki fissure (Iceland, 17th century I think) resulted in the deaths of maybe 20000 people in the UK (mostly outdoor workers in the summer) from lung damage as a result of toxic gas inhalation.

Pangea

Mayo Exile wrote: »

Ireland could theoretically be struck by a hurricane

lol @ Theoretically ,of course we can!
Hurricane Stephen in St.Stephens Day 1998 was the last big one here in Donegal, it was a Beast.

F-Stop

I saw the title and assumed this was a post in politics.

thetonynator

Pangea wrote: »

lol @ Theoretically ,of course we can!
Hurricane Stephen in St.Stephens Day 1996 was the last big one here in Donegal, it was a Beast.

Are you sure that was an actual hurricane? not just hurricane winds, but an actual hurricane? I've never heard of it . . .

Pangea

thetonynator wrote: »

Are you sure that was an actual hurricane? not just hurricane winds, but an actual hurricane? I've never heard of it . . .

Its called Hurricane Stephen. Hurricane winds is a Hurricane, it affected North of the Country thats probably why you dont remember it.
My neighbour had to get his roof replaced!! Im sure there is some qualifed meteorologist here to say it wasnt a real hurricane though. :pac:
1998 I meant by the way.

je55ie

Delighted this thread was started , was going to ask this question myself several times but never did

thetonynator

Pangea wrote: »

Its called Hurricane Stephen. Hurricane winds is a Hurricane, it affected North of the Country thats probably why you dont remember it.
My neighbour had to get his roof replaced!! Im sure there is some qualifed meteorologist here to say it wasnt a real hurricane though. :pac:
1998 I meant by the way.

Doesn't it have to have a properly formed eye and be of tropical origin in the hurricane season to be a hurricane?

Afaik, hurricane force winds is only the definiton of the force, in the same way as gale or storm force is. It needs to have the correct structure to be a hurricane . . .but i could easily be wrong!

Mayo Exile

Pangea wrote: »

lol @ Theoretically ,of course we can!
Hurricane Stephen in St.Stephens Day 1998 was the last big one here in Donegal, it was a Beast.

Sorry, meant an actual hurricane (warm core, closed circulatory system) as opposed to an deep mid latitude depression which frequently produce wind gusts of hurricane force and over (74+ mph), especially in Donegal!

Pangea

If thats what an actual hurricane is then fair enough , dont know much about these things! But a lot of the things coming in off the atlantic have 'eyes and closed circulatory systems'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_windstorm

See the night of the big wind and the hurricane stephen mentioned in there ,they where cyclonic in nature.

Just seen that a hurricane is another name for a cyclone?
Whatever about the defintion , the 98 one was very bad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQTJNmLCS9A&feature=related

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_Day_Storm

Speeds of 125mph/200km where recorded in Donegal

Harps

I remember that storm well, I lived on an island back then and we were totally cut off for 4 days with no electricity and no fresh food supply. Lots of structural damage as well, a brand new house near me had its roof completely blown off

I have no idea on the technical definition of a hurricane but I'd imagine theres a difference between an actual hurricane (tropical cyclone) and hurricane force 12 winds.

Mayo Exile

Pangea wrote: »

If thats what an actual hurricane is then fair enough , dont know much about these things! But a lot of the things coming in off the atlantic have 'eyes and closed circulatory systems'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_windstorm

See the night of the big wind and the hurricane stephen mentioned in there ,they where cyclonic in nature.

Just seen that a hurricane is another name for a cyclone?
Whatever about the defintion , the 98 one was very bad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQTJNmLCS9A&feature=related

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_Day_Storm

Speeds of 125mph/200km where recorded in Donegal

Remember it too. Was in Murrisk (near Westport) that day. Absolutely cat for about 6 hours up to about 7pm if i remember rightly. Strangely though the electricity was only off for a few hours that day. Many hadn't power for up to a week.

Image of storm in thermal infra red at 1421 GMT that day.

Credit to: NERC Satellite Receiving Station, Dundee University, Scotland.
Link: http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/

mike65

IT WAS NOT A HURRICANE! Even down here that storm did plenty of damage including a bit to my house (lifted the front facing roof tiles at the edge) but it was not a hurricane, for a kick off it was mid winter and the Atlantic don't get hurricanes when the water falls below a certain temp - 26.5 °C and that to a depth of 50 m.

Use of the term Hurricane Stephen is entirely bogus, some crap on wiki.

irish1967

Ok. What about flooding? With all the new construction etc aren't we due a mega flood? Yeah I know we had serious flooding rural and urban in the not too distant past. But what about a country wide deluge ?

Here's one I remember.
http://wn.com/strabane_flood,_october_1987

Pangea

mike65 wrote: »

IT WAS NOT A HURRICANE! Even down here that storm did plenty of damage including a bit to my house (lifted the front facing roof tiles at the edge) but it was not a hurricane, for a kick off it was mid winter and the Atlantic don't get hurricanes when the water falls below a certain temp - 26.5 °C and that to a depth of 50 m.

Use of the term Hurricane Stephen is entirely bogus, some crap on wiki.

Its not from wiki that I got the term Hurricane Stephen , thats what it was called at the time.
Whatever it was , 200kms is bad, regardless what name comes with it.
The winds you got down south would have been nothng compared to what it was like up north.

thetonynator

mike65 wrote: »

IT WAS NOT A HURRICANE! Even down here that storm did plenty of damage including a bit to my house (lifted the front facing roof tiles at the edge) but it was not a hurricane, for a kick off it was mid winter and the Atlantic don't get hurricanes when the water falls below a certain temp - 26.5 °C and that to a depth of 50 m.

Use of the term Hurricane Stephen is entirely bogus, some crap on wiki.

Like hurricane Tomas a while back!

thetonynator

Pangea wrote: »

Its not from wiki that I got the term Hurricane Stephen , thats what it was called at the time.
Whatever it was , 200kms is bad, regardless what name comes with it.
The winds you got down south would have been nothng compared to what it was like up north.

Has owenc hacked your account by any chance??? :P

Pangea

thetonynator wrote: »

Has owenc hacked your account by any chance??? :P

Just telling it how it was . The hurricane or storm or whatever hit Donegal the worst. Waterford is a considerable distance away.

MiNdGaM3

I guess really we need to consider the timescale under which our extreme weather can occur.
Give a few hundred or thousand years and we could be ice locked and covered in snow for 9 months of the year or sufferring severe doughts and heat with occassional hurricanes.
As for nowadays, given the right conditions we could certainly have a winter much colder than 62/63, summers warmer and longer than July 06, and storms with winds at strong hurricane strength (not just gusts), they're all just very very unlikely!

pauldry

Some high pressure for a month with no weather.........oh wait that was January