| February 1990 Storms | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: February 6 2011, 12:30 AM (167 Views) | |
| Mark (IWO) | February 6 2011, 12:30 AM Post #1 |
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ARTICLE BY PATRICK GORDON: The opening days of February was the windiest period of the winter 2010/2011 season so far over Ireland with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th bringing gale gusts to many areas. The highest gust of 72Knots occurred at Belmullet on the 3rd whilst the highest daily mean wind speed, 33.1 Knots, occurred at Malin Head on the same day. However, the winds so far this February are a far cry from those that occurred in February 1990. February 1990 was a consistently stormy month with prolonged and damaging gales occurring frequently throughout the month. Daily mean wind speeds at many official recording stations were consistently high. Malin Head’s mean daily wind speed of 52.8 knots on the 2nd shows just how severe the winds were even at the beginning of the month. February 1990 started as it meant to go on. On the first, a vigorous wave depression in the Atlantic bombed rapidly as headed towards Ireland and brought storm force winds to many areas during the afternoon. Winds gusted over 70 Knots at many stations as this storm passed over Ireland. This set the scene for the rest of the month. Malin Head recorded 18 days of gales (mean wind speeds of over 34 knots) throughout the month while most over stations recorded over 20 days with gale gusts. At Belmullet, the 6th was the only day of that dark February that a gale gust was not recorded while at Cork Airport, 22 consecutive hours with mean wind speeds exceeding gale force 8 was recorded on the 4th. Interestingly, the highest gust at any station occurred at Clones, when a gust 81 knots was recorded during an intense storm on the 26th. February 1990 was also a very wet month with rainfall totals well in excess of 200% of normal at many stations and before February 1998, was the wettest on record in many areas. Shannon Airport also reported 3 days with thunder this month. It was, however, a very mild month everywhere! So while the opening days of February 2011 were windy over Ireland it will certainly take a lot for this month to compare to that incredibly stormy and wild month of February 1990. |
| The coldest winter you will ever experience is a summer in West Clare. | |
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9:13 PM Jul 11