Is Ireland becoming less windy?

circadian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118240618#Comment_118240618

Those stations are based in Surrey, Richmond and Pitt Meadows and those areas have had massive high rise developments. Even over the last 10 years, I'm sure that'd have an effect on the data. Mind you, I lived there for years and didn't feel it was particularly windy or prone to stormy weather. I'm from the North West of Ireland so possibly my view is a little skewed in that regard.

Oneiric 3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118249575#Comment_118249575

Surprising really, given than Vancouver is located roughly on a similar latitude, on the western edge of a huge continent, as the south of the UK or northern France.

circadian

Vancouver Island which is pretty large (As long as Ireland and about half as wide) probably creates a shielding effect in the Lower Mainland, especially since the area is so mountainous. The weather isn't unlike here, mild and wet but the summers are certainly hotter and for longer too with the winters not often going below zero (just like here you get the occasional snowy cold snap).

Oneiric 3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118252321#Comment_118252321

Very interesting. The impression I get though (and I'm open to correction) is that N. Pacific winter storms are not quite as vigorous and N. Atlantic winter storms, despite the far greater expanse of ocean they have to develop in.

Charles Babbage

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118252716#Comment_118252716

On Vancouver Island and Washington State, you see forest right down to the shore in a way that you do not see in Kerry or Mayo. Perhaps at one time there were trees there but it suggests that winds are stronger here.

Danno

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118252758#Comment_118252758

I'm open to correction on this but I was under the impression that farming is responsible for the lack of trees on our western coast.

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118252956#Comment_118252956

Some of the few trees there are are bent almost double, leaning away from the ocean. It is the strong winds off the ocean. Where there is even a dip in the land, or a covering curve. they will grow. Little else will.

The road I have seen this stripping of trees of is the coast road here in Mayo. from Mulranny to Ballycroy. Where there are big houses? Bushes and trees. Where no barrier to the off -ocean winds, breathtaking bareness.

M.T. Cranium

The peak winds at the Vancouver location would be from a hurricane remnant (Freda) of the central Pacific family (not a typhoon but a named hurricane from near Hawaii) that hit on Oct 12, 1962 in the evening, in the USA it is known as the Columbus Day storm. It was about like Ophelia, and took out large swaths of forest on exposed hilltops in western WA state where winds gusted over 100 mph.

The winter climate of Vancouver is pretty similar to Cork in that the city has protected zones and windier coastal zones. But the entire region is somewhat shielded by the higher ground of the Olympic peninsula of northwest WA state as well as the hills on southern Vancouver Island. Out on the west coast of the Island they get roughly similar wind speeds in storms to Valentia or Belmullet and the storms are about of equal intensity there.

Although the winds did not hit the airport location, there was a very powerful windstorm in mid-Dec 2006 which destroyed many trees in Stanley Park which is located just to the west of downtown Vancouver. These winds were estimated in the 160-180 km/hr range. I was living in the city then but at my location the peak winds were probably closer to 130 km/hr with minor tree damage. The trees are a lot bigger in this part of the world and so when one comes down it tends to snap at about the halfway point leading to a tree that goes halfway up then halfway down, but sometimes they do fall straight out and do some damage to houses.

One of the windier spots around the region is Whidbey Island with a weather station (this is off the coast of WA state in Puget Sound). They are exposed to the full fetch from the Pacific through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and often gust 15-30 km/hr higher than either Vancouver airport or Bellingham airport (on the WA mainland).

The inland valleys are not very windy and have long intervals of nearly calm weather. But you can get F2-3 tornado activity around here at times in the summer and autumn months. We had a small tornado go past the town where I'm living now and it took out about a hundred trees on the local golf course, fortunately it missed homes and the golf club buildings, then climbed a hill and crossed a highway before it lifted off the ground. That was thought to be just an F-1 twister. But over at Creston BC they had a full-on F3 tornado back in the early part of this century, and similar strength was reported near Portland Oregon in a tornado in 1972 (it hit Vancouver WA which is a suburb of Portland).