Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Add Reply
Storm Lukas Brings Damaging Winds To Ireland
Topic Started: February 7 2011, 04:47 PM (306 Views)
Mark (IWO)
Member Avatar
Admin

ARTICLE BY FERGAL TIERNEY: After a very quiet few weeks weatherwise, the Atlantic returned with a bang yesterday and today as a deep depression (named Lukas by the German Wetterpate system) tracked to our north.

The system brought damaging gales to many parts of the country. One woman tragically lost her life after she was struck by a falling tree while walking on Waterloo Road in Dublin.

Not since Storm Carmen back on November 11th have we seen such strong winds, but after a cold December and a January of nothingness, it was only a matter of time before we would again feel the full wrath of a wintertime Atlantic.

An intense polar vortex set up over north-eastern Canada during the week in relation to an extremely cold Arctic airmass that set in from the north. Gradients tightened between it and a warmer airmass to the south, generating an intense jetstream of over 90 m/s (320 kph). Such intense wind aloft means conditions are right for deep depressions to form, which is what happened over the past 24 hours.

The satellite photo for 06 UTC on Thursday morning shows this process in its early stages. The jet axis is marked in red, with the isotachs (lines of equal windspeed) in yellow, and in metres per second (1 m/s = 2.2 mph = 3.6 kph). The isobars show a closed low lying in the Left Front Quadrant of the jetstreak, where divergence aloft leads to rising air from below.
Posted Image

READ MORE HERE
The coldest winter you will ever experience is a summer in West Clare.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · Irish Weather Forecast & Discussion · Next Topic »
Add Reply

tm