The January 1974 Storms

Sponge Bob

Of all the storms I personally remember the worst was the (first) January 1974 storm. I suppose that was because it was large and quite slow moving. ( Note. I slept through the entire 'hurricane' in London in 1987 and got quite a surprise the next morning )

Gusts of 94KT were recorded in Cork during the first storm and a max 74Kt was recorded in Cork during the second storm while a whopping 96KT was recorded in Claremorris during the third and last one. A gust of 108KT was recorded in Kilkeel Co Down on the 12th of January but is not alluded to in the Met Report below. This is the all time record gust anywhere in Ireland.

Meteociel shows the setups in their invaluable archive.

The First Storm 11 and 12-01 1974 was fairly slow moving but rather large. It pushed a lot of water ahead of it (as did another big one in January 1995) and caused a lot of damage on the west coast and in the south.

http://www.meteociel.fr/modeles/archives/archives.php?mode=0&month=1&day=10&year=1974&map=0&hour=12 ( Click >> to see how it progressed in 12 hour intervals)

This first storm also carried a lot of airborne salt which affected conductors on overhead lines quite a distance inland and together with wind damage to plant fully 250,000 premises lost power which, in a country with only c.900,000 homes and 100,000 businesses in 1974 meant 1 in 4 homes and businesses were without power. I think this is still a record.

The second storm on the 16 01 74 was a mini bomb. Probably tucked under the jet stream.

http://www.meteociel.fr/modeles/archives/archives.php?mode=0&month=1&day=15&year=1974&map=0&hour=12 Click >> to view progression.

The third storm cut off power to 10% of the premises ( 100,000) in the state and was further north in less populated areas otherwise it could have been worse.

It was also a bomb, note the extrusion from the Icelandic Low system which was a feature of the entire month, centred SW of Iceland near Greenland and watch as it bombs east.

http://www.meteociel.fr/modeles/archives/archives.php?mode=0&month=1&day=27&year=1974&map=0&hour=12 Click >> To View Progression.

We had another Bomb on the 2nd of January 1976 which resulted in recorded gusts of 80KT+ at 3 IMT stations. Meteocieldoes not show it clearly until it passed into the north sea on the third of January. It probably developed significantly between the 0z and 12z that Meteociel have.

The Detailed Met Eireann Report on the January 1974 Storms written May 1974 and with comparisons with Hurricane Debbie at the end

1976 Storm Report Met Éireann.

IWO Had a page of 100 Interesting Facts About Irish Weather Records which is still in the Google cache written by Mark Dunphy. As it will not be in the cache forever I attach it below before it disappears.

gally74

I was born in oct 7:4 so I missed it

Min

My father maintains this was the worse storm he ever experienced and he is elderly.

He was out in a field as some cattle needed attention, he said it would near lift you off the ground and you would hear the roar of the wind coming and he would have to get down close to the ground before it hit .

up for anything

I recalled in another thread driving through the storm of 2/1/76. It was quite a night.

I also slept through the 'hurricane' in London although I did wake up at one stage - I was in a hotel and couldn't understand why the bed was shaking and there was no electricity. I thought that evil spirits were trying to lift the bed a la the Exorcist. I went back to sleep quickly enough once the night receptionist brought me up a hurricane lamp (she never explained what was going on) and I didn't realise until the next morning.