Two weather stations experienced hurricane-force mean wind speeds as Storm Éowyn buffeted Ireland last month, according to Met Éireann data.
The forecaster’s meteorological report for January confirms “the provisional highest (sustained and gust) wind speeds” for Ireland since records have been recorded digitally.
These were at Mace Head, Co Galway, early on Friday January 24th, where the fastest gust was 184km/h and the highest 10-minute mean wind speed was 142km/h.
Three other stations broke their highest gust records during the storm: Finner, Co Donegal (150km/h); Athenry, Co Galway (139km/h) and Gurteen, Co Tipperary (124km/h).
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Ten-minute mean wind speed records were also broken at Finner (115km/h), Dunsany, Co Meath (76km/h) and Athenry (83km/h).
The Mace Head and Malin Head stations reached hurricane force 12 on the Beaufort wind scale, Met Éireann said.
The forecaster said January was a typical winter month with the final third “dominated by a powerful Atlantic jet stream, which steered several active low-pressure systems towards western Europe”.
Éowyn went through “explosive cyclogenesis as it approached Ireland from the southwest on Thursday 23rd and reached peak intensity as it brushed by the northwest coast ... with a sting jet feature forming on the south side of the low”.
This brought heavy rain and extreme winds with widespread disruption and power outages.
A weather buoy off the west Cork coast recorded the highest wave – 20.2m – around the height of a six-storey building.
Valentia Observatory, Co Kerry, recorded the highest rainfall over the worst 24 hours of the storm – 28.5mm – while the coldest spot was Moorepark, Co Cork, at -4.1 degrees.
The weather in Ireland during January was nowhere near any records in terms of temperature – warm or cold – or rainfall.
However, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Thursday it was the warmest January globally, with an average temperature of 13.23 degrees.
This was 1.75 degrees above the pre-industrial levels and was the 18th month in the past 19 where global-average surface air temperature was more than 1.5 degrees above the mid-19th century level.
This was despite natural La Niña conditions in the tropical Pacific and their temporary cooling effect on global temperatures.
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