The complete absence of Named Storms this Winter.

squarecircles

Anybody else finding it odd there hasn't been even one named storm since the storm period began last September.

There was one orange warning issued i think in Donegal at some stage but even this didn't warrant a naming from Met Eireann.

As far as i can tell the criteria for naming a storm hasnt changed.

Dare i say Ireland is becoming less windy or it could be just a random fluke.

knowing our luck will probably get a storm in the middle of the Summer now.

Out the back I have two wheelie bins for storing wood or turf. About 6 weeks ago I woke up to find one of the wheelie bins on the other side of the fence with turf spread all around it. What strength of wind do you need to knock over a wheelie bin full of turf? Surely the kind of wind that warrants a name or a warning of some kind.

Location: East Galway.

timmyntc

Its the bloody wind turbines stealing all the wind

Duvet Day

There have been named storms that weren't as bad as the weather in Cork today imo.

Xander10

Maybe they realised the public were getting tired of strong breezes being named and reported as storms.

mcburns07

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120395225#Comment_120395225

Wheelie bin of turf knocked over is definitely brown warning level

DOCARCH

Definitely had some windy episodes this winter in Greystones that were windier/stormier than named storm wind 'events'.

Storm 10

Very windy today in Galway we had some pretty violent gusts my station recorded one of 65 mph this morning and its still blowing up at times to 50 mph supposed to get stronger in the evening very high tide due around 8pm.

pauldry

We had winds near 120kph earlier this year that smashed my weather station (that survived all the other named storms ) to pieces.

However that wind was localised to the NW where higher winds are common so they didn't name it. There could be one in April I think. Long shot but seeing storm on some charts in early April.

Meteorite58

Yeah I don't remember such a storm free year as just gone by or any severe weather for that matter, very benign. We had our high temperatures last Summer, a good cold week or so, no major widespread flooding, some localized yes, haven't seen the likes of the Shannon basin flooded for some time and even our last few windy events damage was limited enough ( thankfully ).

Watching the charts the last year it is getting so commonplace to see projected weather events in FI or even at around 4 to 5 days out become downgraded by each run until something of a whimper is left. When you see the likes of the extreme weather they got in the US and elsewhere we seem to have become increasingly quiet here. A few good thunderstorms last year .....I'm wondering could we see an increase in thunderstorm activity leading into and over the summer if Europe maintains its run of hot summers . Will we get an increase in warm moist plumes up form Biscay etc eventually leading to big thunderstorm events ?? Is this the year we smash the highest temperature record ??

Hopefully in time Met Eireann will move away from giving whole county warnings and instead highlight areas such as a strip so many km's in from the coasts or the S of a county or N of a county etc.

Who knows the storm of the century might be just around the corner but I haven't the foggiest notion what way our weather will pan out.

Water John

I think there were a few, not named by the Irish/UK system. I Portuguese I think.

TheRiverman

There hasn't been one named storm because there wasn't any. Thankfully Joanna Donnelly never got her fix of status anything.

M.T. Cranium

It is probably related to the general lack of intensity of the jet stream over the regions west of Ireland, the Atlantic and eastern North America. It has been notable in the same way that the eastern seaboard of the U.S., in particular NYC to the Carolinas, have not had one significant winter storm, a very bland winter for them too.

If we take out the two or three cold blocked intervals in western Europe (when you're unlikely to see a named storm), the rest of the winter has been dominated by zonal flow without strong energy centres which would be characterized by more intense jet stream winds and strong gradients in upper level flow. There has been no shortage of mundane low pressure in fact I think there has been about one a day for several weeks now. Today's strong winds were probably about as close as we've been to "named storm" conditions on a widespread basis.

Jeremy Sproket

The wokey leftists probably didn't like the alternation between masculine and feminine names.

.Donegal.

It has been about 10 years since the last proper severe one(for my inland location). I think it was 2012, Malin head had sustained hurricane force winds that night and gusts above 100mph. Been a couple notable winds inbetween that but nothing exceptional. Notable wind events are becoming few and far between here as the years go on. Ophelia was just a gale here and Darwin was SW. The NW used to usually see the worst of the storms but the south has gotten the worst of it in recent times.

Edit - I found this. Irish examiner Jan 2012

Winds in the early hours of yesterday gusted at 91 knots(105mph), with a ferocity in excess of 170km/h recorded at Malin Head at 5.30am — a speed only surpassed seven times in Ireland, Met Éireann said.

At 5.40am the Malin station recorded a 10-minute average windspeed of 68 knots (126km/h). That is equivalent to Beaufort scale 12 — hurricane force.

Met Éireann described the pounding as “exceptional”, even for this time of year. At one point, about 15,000 homes were without electricity, mainly due to falling trees pulling down power lines. Slates were whipped off roofs and damage to property was reported.

Power to 5,000 homes was quickly restored. By noon, however, almost 11,000 households remained without power. Donegal and Sligo were worst hit, with 9,000 households affected.

nacho libre

The last great storm I can remember was over 25 years ago. I do remember a decent one too around 2008. I was not in the country for Ophelia and Darwin, but by the sounds of it they were fairly severe .

mcburns07

Ophelia and Darwin were both big ones for us down here in Cork. Before those the next strongest I can remember was Christmas Eve 1997.

Gaoth Laidir

We need to stop issuing a new list every year and just do what the Asians do for typhoons, use the same list from one year into the next, until it's exhausted, then start a new one.