Overview/Brendan McWilliams: We should not be surprised by the recent spate of storms. Statistically, January is the Irish month with the highest frequency of gales, and a vigorous procession of deep depressions sweeping one after the other past the north-western coast of Ireland at intervals of a day or so is not unusual at this time of year.
Some of our greatest storms, in fact, have come along in January.
The Burns Day storm of January 25th, 1990, so called because it occurred on the birthday of the Scottish poet Robbie Burns, caused widespread damage, much worse than that of yesterday, throughout Ireland and Britain. And the storm said to have been the greatest ever to hit Ireland also occurred in January, on the 6th of this month in 1839.
The so-called "Night of the Big Wind" seems to have been much more severe than anything we have experienced in recent times.
The frequency of January storms is partly explained by the fact that the temperature at the equator varies little throughout the year, while the northern latitudes become significantly colder during the winter months; the increased temperature contrast in winter between the two zones adds fuel to the atmospheric engine and results in more frequent and more vigorous depressions. And secondly, at this time of year the average track of depressions in the North Atlantic passes very close to Ireland, in contrast to summertime when their preferred path lies much further to the north.
The recent family of depressions, destructive as they may well have been, were very much in conformity with this norm.
Has all this anything to do with earthquakes, tsunamis or even global warming? Absolutely not! We have had worse storms before, we will have worse again, and we have no need of a scapegoat in the guise of climate change. On the contrary, this is just the Irish climate behaving as it always has.