Storm Franklin - Sunday 20th/Monday 21st Feb 2022

Gaoth Laidir

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118666250#Comment_118666250

That 133-kph gust was Malin Head's highest. Nearby Magilligan (also coastal) got 126 kph, as did Finner (also near the coast). Inland, however, Castlederg had one gust of 102 kph, the rest all below 90 kph. Check the hourly gusts here https://meteologix.com/ie/observations/donegal/gusts/20220221-0400z.html

ascophyllum

This was well forecast since at least Friday by GFS and other models, the fact that Mayo only went orange 4 hours before is insane, people had already leftt, made plans etc. some older people who aren't on social media weren't even aware it was orange until much later in the evening. It was borderline red, certinaly in coastal areas, and a lot of reports of damage already.

Imagine if those wind speeds were forecast for the east of the country? I know there's a greater population there but there's still decent populations in Westport/Newport/Achill/Belmullet/ Ballina etc.

malinheader

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118666321#Comment_118666321

Thanks I must keep that link.

ednwireland

awake half the night. power out now sw donegal.

omicron

I think the whole warning system has failed at this point. Red warnings should only be issued for events that are extremely out of the ordinary and as such pose an extreme risk to life and property, and the thresholds for expected winds should be changed to reflect this.

However that being said I think people on this forum are over reacting to the impact of Franklin Vs Eunice. Eunice was forecast to strike at rush hour on Friday morning with schools open, and focused along relatively densely populated areas on the south coast that aren't as accustomed to storm damage as the west and north west. We also got relatively lucky that the worst of the winds were to the south of us and missed us. If they're going to err on the side of caution with a red warning then that was the one to do it with.

Even the power outage numbers speak for themselves, far less of an impact from Franklin.

adocholiday

Significant gusts here in South Wicklow the past hour or so, up to near 90kph. Still well within the yellow territory but my trees make it seem much worse!

Rebelbrowser

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118666199#Comment_118666199

No, highest gust last night was 133kph at Malin Head***, Eunice had 137kph at Roches Point. I think the point with Eunice too is that the track was uncertain and it could have been worse as the worst winds missed us to the south. Fastnet, which is obviously at sea, had 172kph during Eunice I think. Obviously you then had that crazy 122 miles per hour gust off the Isle of White.

EDIT:- Just belatedly realised there were bigger gusts of 141 kph at Mace Head. 141kph was indeed the highest of the two storms on land.

snowstreams

The main problem with Eunice for mayo & the northern half of the country was the fact they closed the schools for a snow& ice warning that didn't really materialise. Eunice had almost no wind up here, especially in comparison to Franklin or even Dudley.

Gaoth Laidir

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118666402#Comment_118666402

Mace Head reported 141 kph on two occasions yesterday evening.

Little snowy old me

A rough night. Still very gusty. A neighbours farm shed got flittered. I heard the corrugated sheeting hitting the road outside last night. Didn't hit my house thankfully.

Are we likely to see more storms this week? This set up reminds me of weeks in years gone by where it was storm after storm.

Little snowy old me

No power here either. But we are well prepared.

OldRio

Worst storm for a number of years in this area. Power went out last night. Back now. I have a tree down on the boundary to a road. About 10m tall.

Dreadful nights sleep.

Co. Leitrim.

firemansam4

One of the worst storms I have seen recently, power has been out all morning, fence at front of house is lob sided and also nearly down at back. Could hear a constant roar of wind around 3am last night, the roof was creaking at this stage.

Ide say there could be quite a bit of damage around after that.

Location about 11km south of Letterkenny.

Rebelbrowser

Sorry, completely missed that, joining this thread late and saw your post re 133 at Malin Head...

mumo3

I have to say that was worst wind, I've heard for a while. Woke up a couple of times I thought the roof was gone and I'm in D22. Don't know how those in the West got any sleep

nacho libre

Still fairly gusty this morning. I wonder will we get another storm before this unsettled period is over.

PukkaPad

Didn't get a wink of sleep in D24 absolutely howling!!! Still fairly strong now.

awec

North Wicklow here, last night was definitely the worst winds out of all the storms in the past week or so. Woke me up numerous times during the night.

pauldry

Survived in Sligo. One tree down outside, a slate on the roof got moved and the car got pushed down the road a few metres as dodgy handbrake.

pauldry

According to rte website there was a gust of 234kph yesterday. I think they were on their Xmas party by the sounds of it at the weekend.

cap.in.hand.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118666432#Comment_118666432

1 of English tabloids newspapers said 4 named storms could be on the way for the UK...so presumably we'd get them as well...the Atlantic can be volatile this time of year.

Cluedo Monopoly

We need to see Syraenbruens comparison chart. Amazing that Mace hit 141 gusts last night.

Nabber

28m wave recorded on M4 bouy. Scary stuff.

http://webapps.marine.ie/IWPGraphs/Default.aspx?Type=3&ProjectId=2&Inst=Hmax&InstSite=M4

pauldry

Yes next Saturday another and early March but could be 2 yellow warning events also including yellow snow warning Wednesday night.

My 10year old daughter asked me "Daddy why is there a yellow snow warning when show is white?"

I see there's a yellow warning for wind in operation for Wicklow and wexford from 9am to noon

They could have issued one of those for Arklow nearly every day this week

Currently regularly gusting to 70kmh here

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118666671#Comment_118666671

Probably the most exposed weather station to last nights storm

Luckily in populated areas nearby probably near but not as strong

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118666454#Comment_118666454

I have to agree. Trees have falling all around where I am in North Sligo. I’m about 5km as the crow flies from the coast and the windows at my house were covered in sea foam this morning.

Tyrone212

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118666321#Comment_118666321

The storm of 10 years ago mean speed almost matched Malin's highest gust from last night. Below

"At approximately 5.40 this morning, Jan 3, 2012, our station in Malin head recorded a 10-minute mean windspeed of 68 kts (78 mph, 126 km/hr, 35 m/s), making it a Beaufort Scale 12, hurricane force, wind.

The station also recorded a gust of 91 kts (169km/h) around the same time."

Last night storm did do damage but its certainly not one for the history books figures wise.

sryanbruen

Here's the ever anticipated and entirely predictable compared to the weather (😝) storm comparison table for max. wind gusts updated to Franklin and I included Eunice too. On this occasion, I have added Athenry, Dunsany, Moore Park and Mount Dillon into the mix also - don't ask why I didn't have those included before because I don't have an answer why!

For Mace Head's wind gust of 139 km/h, I am going by met.ie which doesn't suggest anything higher than that throughout the night. I will update if I have to.

As always for newcomers, values are colour coded to represent their warranted warning level based on criteria set out by Met Éireann: 90-109 km/h = yellow, 110-129 km/h = orange, 130+ km/h = red. Anything less than 90 km/h = green/no warning.

On a national average using the stations in this table, Storm Franklin fell just short of Storm Barra in December (101 km/h vs 102 km/h national averages respectively) but was significantly more widespread than Eunice which had a national average of 94 km/h. Malin Head had its highest wind gust since January 2012 whilst Mace Head had its highest since September 2018 and the highest in Ireland since August 2020.

The top 5 strongest storms on a widespread national scale in this table are Darwin (121 km/h) in February 2014, Ophelia (106 km/h) in October 2017, Erich (106 km/h) in December 2013, Doris (105 km/h) in February 2017 and Ulli (105 km/h) in January 2012 whilst the weakest by far was Lorenzo (76 km/h) in October 2019.

I have slacked a bit on the progress of the sustained winds comparison table so it is still not ready - my focus has been on other projects. For now, I have given the sustained winds for Franklin vs Eunice below too. Feel free to provide your Durrow max. sustained speed Danno if you're reading this.

EDIT: For some reason, the storm comparison table on Boards is very poor quality and can hardly make out the values. So here's my tweet of it instead if you wish to view it.

https://twitter.com/SryanWx/status/1495709239498653696?s=20&t=08bZHTd8tfZT7DUfFO2Rhg

Gaoth Laidir

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118666671#Comment_118666671

Hourly reports yesterday said it hit 141 kph but Met Éireann have it as only 139 kph in their "Yesterday's Weather" page today.

Dublin Airport - Yesterdays's Observations - Met Éireann Observations for Dublin Airport, Ireland - The Irish Meteorological Service