Interesting Statistic - Lack of Wind and Gale Force Gusts

Danno

Yesterday (October 30th) was the first time since May 14th this year that I recorded a gale force gust (39mph+) at my station. I use a Davis Pro Vantage II with the anemometer at standard 10m height for recording here at Durrow...

Perhaps @sryanbruen might be able to come up with statistics on notable lengths of time without a gust measuring 39mph!

EDIT: Also notice this is my 7,000th post on this forum! 😁

sryanbruen

Looked through the wind gust data for Valentia since 1990 and found the following periods of 80 days+ that lacked gale force gusts. 2003 had a period of as much as 121 consecutive "gale force-less" days at Valentia whilst the longest period in 2021 was 83 consecutive days. Interesting how I couldn't find a period from the 1990s and 1 in the 2000s yet 5 in the 2010s onwards. Maybe indicative of the reduction in wind since?

discostu1

Hi Long time Lurker on this forum and thank you all for your great knowledge, charts and comments over many years, they have been a great help personally and professionally.

I have spent a large part of the year in West Cork next to the sea. I have probably spent near half me life there. This summer seems to have been the calmest I can remember there were many days when it was flat calm , the hot spell would account for the lack of wind, but even since it has been very calm. We had a few days of strong breeze more than anything else and I bet having written this there will be a status Red for Cork probably next week Lol .But genuine question just me or has there been far less strong winds in the last while. One thing I keep an eye on is the Eirgrid wind energy production figure and at one stage we were down to 8%. so there are implications

Any thoughts

fits

Yes its weird. Normally we would have had heaps of Atlantic Storms by now. I am sure the usual few will hit around mid-winter and with chalara really hitting Ash trees this year, a good few of those are going to come down in the near future too.

Reckless Abandonment

Yeah I've noticed it to. My garden is fairly exposed but this year I've had no wind damage to any of my plants and I mean none. unlike last year which was very bad.

CaboRoig

I think there's a huge amount of leaves still on trees compared to previous years.

Oneiric 3

It isn't just you. Winds speeds have been running well below the norm for much of this year so far.

esposito

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118191413#Comment_118191413

And I’m delighted with that.

Billcarson

I had a fair but of wind earlier in the year but thankfully my flatulence has subsided...........

discostu1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118191413#Comment_118191413

Is there a meteorological reason, a blocking high or something ?

DaSchmo

Been a very frustrating season as a sailor! Almost every time I went out there was very little wind.

Oneiric 3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118192497#Comment_118192497

High pressure laying close to or over Ireland over the last few months has basically kept the more usual Atlantic lows (which bring our usual breezy conditions) more steered away to our north and west.

Supercell

If it's the new normal I'm all for it as a runner, winter wind sucks the warmth out of you. I suspect it's cyclical and we will see a period of more stormy weather eventually, there is more warmth in the air globally, that's surely got to equate to more air mobility over the long run.

Oneiric 3

Cork Apt monthly windspeed anomaly (from 81-10 average) for each complete month of this year.

Says it all.

data: Met Eireann.

Danno

Merged this with an earlier thread I started - great minds think alike @discostu1 :)

discostu1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118193911#Comment_118193911

My apologies I hadnt seen the earlier one

discostu1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118193734#Comment_118193734

Wow that really does show it in spades

Nabber

Can only imagine the fisheries welcome such calmness.

discostu1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118196632#Comment_118196632

Aye but currently we are generating 94MW from wind............the System demand is 5649 MW 😥

Nabber

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118205859#Comment_118205859

Consistency with wind generation will always be an issue.

discostu1

Yep the problem is at present for every MW of wind/renewables you have to have a MW of conventional behind it which is flipping expensive

sryanbruen

In the 2021 annual summary, Met É mentioned "Four stations had their lowest yearly mean wind on record (record length ranging from between 9 and 16 years). Thirteen stations had their lowest yearly mean wind since 2010 and Dublin Airport, Co Dublin had its lowest yearly mean wind since 1959.".

So without looking at the data, I am having to believe that 2021 was indeed the most calm year nationally speaking since 2010. Both years known for their blocked setups - 2010 tended to be more from -NAO which apart from April and May (perhaps January too) wasn't really as much of a feature in 2021 and there was a prolonged warm period from June to December.

Mean sea level pressure anomalies for the two years are in line with what I theorised to some extent. Both years tended to have higher pressure blocking to the northwest but clearly the -NAO signal was stronger in 2010 with a deeper Euro trough which was the result of the exceptionally cold and blocked winters at either end of the year.