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

Donegal Ken · 21-02-2022 12:49pm

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

Finner mean winds speed was in the red warning criteria of a few hours. Donegal should of been under a red warning last night was desperate

Gaoth Laidir · 21-02-2022 1:15pm

Meanwhile, the parent low caused some phenomenal windspeeds up on the southern coast of Iceland yesterday morning. Steinar (20 m amsl) reported a gust of 58 m/s (209 kph) at 06Z. The ridge of high ground near the coast no-doubt caused a funneling effect during the spell of easterly winds.

Observations - | South | Icelandic Meteorological office (vedur.is)

Gaoth Laidir · 21-02-2022 1:22pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118667171#Comment_118667171

The key here is the word "widespread". Most areas were well below Red criteria, but this then again brings into question the policy of issuing colour by county.

Donegal Ken · 21-02-2022 1:43pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118667339#Comment_118667339

That's fairly widespread from north of the county to the south of the county

Little snowy old me · 21-02-2022 1:49pm

Met eireann and MT'S forecasts are not mentioning to much in the way fo more stormy weather this week though I have heard some talk locally of another storm on Friday or Satutday this weekend. The reason I'm keeping an eye out is that I need two gutters repaired that got damaged last night, and the nephew can't come up to me until Saturday morning.

trixi001 · 21-02-2022 1:51pm

If the same wind speeds that Donegal experienced last night, which were reasonably well forecast were to be experienced else where in Ireland, a red would have been issued.

Wether or not these events should be a red warning or not is not really relevant, of they are enough for a red warning in one part of the country, they should be enough for a red in another.

The winds were rough, trees down everywhere, looking around my estate this morning a lot of minor damage, fences down etc.

The time of a storm isn't really relevant either..if its a risk to life, its a risk to life regardless of if its at 9am or 3am..lots of people are on the roads overnight for whatever reason and not always necessary journeys.

I thought there was clear parameters that meant red warning and sometimes could be issued if the weather was below these parameters but other factors meant increased risk, such as leaves on trees or in the case of this morning..trees weakened by previous storms

redsteveireland · 21-02-2022 2:14pm

I think I have finally found the location of the "Athenry" station, its 3 kilometers from the town. Would the presence of the raised M6 and M18 motorways have much effect on the readings I wonder? Although the M18 is a good distance away by looking at this.

Rosswind · 21-02-2022 3:43pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118667339#Comment_118667339

Considering they went to the trouble of adding Marine warnings could they not have issued a Red Marine for the West coast and left the Orange on land thus reflecting the situation better?

21-02-2022 4:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118667339#Comment_118667339

Certainly for the larger coastal counties like Cork and Galway, it's ridiculous that one size colour should be expected to fit all.

As I commented yesterday the wind in coastal West Cork (Bantry Bay) was absolutely horrendous for over 12 hours, yet we were in the same yellow alert zone as Mitchelstown, over 140 km away and 60 km from the coast!

Widdensushi · 21-02-2022 4:22pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118668206#Comment_118668206

Given the wind direction yesterday i don't think you would have been anymore affected than Mitchelstown.

Rebelbrowser · 21-02-2022 4:25pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118666927#Comment_118666927

Great work again here.

Just one observation from a parochial view, but I wonder how well the two South Western most stations capture these storms?

Sherkin has some high gusts but you'd expect it to be showing higher gusts more often than not than, say, Roches Point in East Cork. That said, I know Sherkin well as I get to spend time there. It is a fairly well sheltered Island in a bay with Cape Clear Island one side of it and Baltimore the other. I suspect if the station was on one of the headlands in West Cork then gusts would be higher.

Valentia I don't know well and looking at the map it looks reasonably exposed, so it's very surprising its highest gust in 10 years is 137kph and even then during a storm where each of Sherkin, Shannon and Mace got to the 155+ kph. Is there a local explanation? You'd imagine a station on the west Kerry coast would get much higher readings.

I appreciate the same may be true of stations further north I don't know about.

Gaoth Laidir · 21-02-2022 4:36pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118668060#Comment_118668060

That's probably a very good point. Many other countries have specific warnings for "Coastal events", so maybe Met Éireann needs to adopt this too and make things clearer.

e.g. Spain call them "Costeros"

RobertKK · 21-02-2022 4:48pm

Franklin is bringing a lot of snow to Finland, they are fed up of all the snow this winter.

If you want to know where all the snow went, it went there...

Pangea · 21-02-2022 5:40pm

Theres a good bit of damage to be seen along the roads today , sheets of a shed in the roadside, telephone lines hanging on the ground stripped from the poles. An ESB pole hanging sideways over a roadside. Power is still out in parts of Donegal since last night. Anyone who was in Donegal last night would not be saying that we didnt need a red warning. A real proper storm it was and quite frightening.

21-02-2022 5:56pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118668268#Comment_118668268

Perhaps thinking may not be your forté! The maximim windspeed at my closest station (Sherkin) yesterday was 78 km/h whereas the maximum recorded at Moorpark (close to Mitchelstown) was 41 km/h.

Widdensushi · 21-02-2022 6:04pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118668710#Comment_118668710

There is no reason for insults, you were suggesting that coastal areas should get a different warning than inland, i am pointing out that while you may have a point when the coastal area is exposed to the direction of the wind, for example sw wind in bantry bay you would have a point but yesterday was nw so there the wind was coming overland, given your tone i won't be replying any further.

SouthWesterly · 21-02-2022 6:47pm

Took a drive out to slea head today for a few photos

Was windy but nothing to bad.

Incredible waves at Clogher strand.

Beach was covered in foam.

corsav6 · 21-02-2022 8:42pm

5 cars completely wrote off yesterday at Breaffy House hotel outside Castlebar where some trees were blown over on top of them, nobody hurt thankfully but some absolute carnage.

Despite what people are saying this is the strongest storm I've experienced at this location in 8 years, and I've experienced 2 red alerts at least. Yesterday and last night warranted a red alert on the west coast regardless of what ME state. The Furnace weather station was pulling in some decent gusts from this system and its sheltered compared to the local population. My weather station won't display anything above 130km/hr gusts and it went blank several times during the storm.

M.T. Cranium · 21-02-2022 9:36pm

As mentioned there are no damaging wind gust scenarios evident in the guidance at present, but we need to keep an eye on Thursday afternoon and evening when I would expect "yellow alert" wind gust potential in similar areas to yesterday's worst-hit counties, and from a rather similar looking set-up within a west to northwest flow. The current maps look less threatening than Franklin at this time.

Saturday has some borderline yellow alert wind potential from south to southwest winds more for the south coast in this case.

Personally, I think there probably should have been a red alert for at least Donegal, Sligo and Mayo, but take it as a sort of compliment that the Met service probably looked at it during the day and said, "well those people are used to very strong winds, we can leave this at orange." If they ever do issue a red alert up there it should be taken very seriously if Franklin didn't merit one, then something that does would presumably be stronger than Franklin. Another factor was the duration of strong gusts, many of our reports here suggested an incessant nature to the storm and over six to nine hours; that was another feature that in my mind at least would suggest a valid red alert status.

pauldry · 22-02-2022 12:09am

No Red alert yet my car blew down the road, the neighbours tree blew down and a slate came off our roof. And this was just a tiny area. Imagine the whole area. I hear in Britain 8million trees have come down with the three storms. Hard to know if that's it for Orange and Red alerts for Winter 2021/22 but certainly a few yellow alerts and possibly an Orange for Donegal Thursday.

Dazler97 · 22-02-2022 12:26am

I see that a gust of 145mph was recorded off malin Head during Franklin, see below

Screenshot_20220221_232246_com.bskyb.skynews.android.jpg

Gaoth Laidir · 22-02-2022 1:02am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118670560#Comment_118670560

Absolute braindead, whoever wrote that, but because it's on social media the average Joe will take it at face value.

Widdensushi · 22-02-2022 1:37am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118670754#Comment_118670754

Average imperial joe....

M.T. Cranium · 22-02-2022 1:38am

The top gust reported at Malin Head was 133 km/hr, which is 82 mph. Fake news. The error could be explained if somebody saw the value 133 and thought it was knots. Very little of Donegal would be there today if winds gusted to 142 mph.