Showing posts with label wind. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wind. Show all posts

Wednesday 16 February 2022

Stormy weather


#StormDudley not so bad right now

Two deep low-pressure systems have been named by the Met Office and will bring very strong winds and potentially snow to the UK and Ireland this week. I don't know how they choose who gets to name them. 

⚠️The warnings are in place. 

#StormDudley will bring a spell of wet and very windy weather today. A yellow wind warning is in place nationwide from noon today until noon tomorrow, with the strongest winds expected in coastal areas and on high ground. Windguru is showing gusts higher than 50 knots later today. Highest temperatures of 9 to 13 degrees C.

🌊Large coastal waves & some coastal flooding are possible. 


Current predicted track of #StormEunice

#StormEunice is the second named storm to impact Ireland this week, bringing high winds and the potential for snow. Some are even saying to expect blizzard-like conditions on Friday morning. In fact, all models are showing heavy precipitation overnight and temperatures around 1C.  #sneachta  

Strong jet stream will fuel Storm Eunice

Storm Eunice is expected to deepen rapidly with central pressure reaching as low as 965mb, 'as the low forms in the right entrance of a jet streak and shifts across to the left exit region'. The exact track/depth is uncertain, which will affect the location of the strongest winds, but there is potential for disruption on Friday especially in the southernmost parts of the country while the northernmost parts get snow pulled down from the North. A definite whiff of explosive cyclogenesis will be in the air as we run through Thursday into Friday (1005mb down to 965mb Thursday noon to Friday noon - 40mb drop in 24hrs).

Central pressure of 965 mb shown centered over the UK. 

The ground in the vineyard was already quite soggy and this week isn't going to help. At least we managed to tie down all the vines securely to their posts and I managed to finish pruning in the orchard. Hopefully, the damage will be minimized. 

They've just issued hurricane-force wind warnings for parts of the UK and Ireland. 


PS Got through Dudley without too much ado. Although Ghost and I got caught up in the polytunnel through the worst of it. 




Wednesday 8 December 2021

Storm Warning

The eyewall Storm Barra
The eyewall of Storm Barra

Yesterday, we experienced a weather bomb. A fast developing system that hit hard and stayed around for a while. Our sailing club recorded wind gusts of more than 77 knots (143 kph or 89 mph) which is hurricane force. Lucky for us, the storm veered a bit more south than forecast, so we had a light easterly quadrant in the morning and northwesterly in the afternoon and overnight. Once again as with Lorenzo, the eye passed directly over us in Clew Bay. 

The white dot in the middle is over Clew Bay

We went to Westport in the morning and got our booster vaccinations then did our food shopping all in light E wind and showers. Then we braced for the worst as they had us in the Red Storm Warning zone for the evening. We are protected from the NW by the hill behind our house and it appears there was no damage.


By mid-afternoon, we had lashing rain and intense winds out of the NW, Our barometer bottomed out at 956 hPa. A 'weather bomb' is an unofficial term for a low-pressure system whose central pressure falls 24 millibars in 24 hours in a process known as explosive cyclogenesis. In the case of Storm Barra, the pressure dropped from around 1,006 millibars on Monday morning to 956 millibars 24 hours later, according to surface weather analysis by the NOAA's Ocean Prediction Center. So I looked at our barometer precisely at the centre of the storm. 

More than 24 hours later the wind is still blowing pretty hard at around 30 knots but gusting only into the 40s. It is bitterly cold even though it's 7.5 C but the wind chill really bites. Thankfully it's dry. We took a walk around the property to survey and saw no damage on the south-facing land. The polytunnel is fine as is the vineyard. No trees down but lots of kindling. Most of the leaves have been stripped from the vines but the vines did well after being tied up last month thank goodness. I still have lots of work to do up there. 

Met Eireann reported that Newport had 31 mm of rain yesterday but the land is not sopping wet as it was last week. The wind must have blown a lot of moisture away. They recorded gusts of 120 kph but they are further inland. Overall it was an interesting day. It started with a blanket of snow but I missed that. By the time I got up, it was melted as the temperature rapidly increased. By the end of the day, some 60,000 homes were without power. A violent gust of 156km/h was recorded off the coast of West Cork where scores of fishing vessels were anchored riding it out in Bantry Bay. 

Here are a few pictures from RTE. Here's a video from the lighthouse maintenance workers who got stuck out at Fastnet when the chopper couldn't pick them up. 

Apparently, Bantry was the worst hit with flooding. The promenade in Galway at Salthill was flooded at high tide - a high spring in tandem with the storm.  It was a pretty wild day. 


                    Met Eireann WEATHER DATA FOR 07-DEC-2021

Station                 Rain Max Min Sun     Wind         Gust Soil     Global Gmin

                        mm         oC oC hr Kts (Km/h)    Kts (Km/h)    oC J/cm^2 oC

Belmullet         16.8         7.0 1.5 0.0 20.3 (38)         55 (102)     5.9     88 0.6

Knock Airport         22.8         5.5 0.0 18.4 (34)         57 (106)     4.2         -0.1

Newport Furnace 31.0         6.9 0.8 22.5 (42)         65 (120)     4.4     81 0.0










Beautiful morning 8-12-21



Vineyard in good shape

Very few leaves remaining

Most leaves stripped by wind

Orchard is a fun playground

My assistant, Ghostie, likes to climb high

French and Spanish trawlers seeking shelter in Bantry Bay


Saturday 2 October 2021

Grapes are gone


Alex went to the vineyard yesterday to pick the remaining grapes and he found one measly bunch. The rest were all gone except a few white ones which he ate. Cheeky birds took them all. 

The weather was miserable and changeable yesterday. Frequent showers, chill wind, a hailstorm like a tornado. Some of the support posts snapped in the wind so Alex had to fix them. The vines are rather thick right now and heavy with leaves. They were whipping around pretty hellishly. I hope they didn't break. It's too early to prune. The video is toward the end of the nasty hail squall. I couldn't get the camera to work while all hell was breaking loose. 

The showers continued through this morning, but now there are lots of puffy white clouds about and hurricane Sam, a category 4, brushing past Bermuda. We're supposed to have much better weather this week so Alex and Cormac are going to bring the boat to Kilrush. 

Have to water all the plants daily.

Ghost and I waiting out a shower

Puffy white clouds against a cerulean sky

Giant sunflower

Dahlias, roses and China aster 

Cosmos finally blooming

MONTHLY VALUES FOR NEWPORT UP TO 01-OCT-2021

Total rainfall in millimetres for NEWPORT

YearJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecAnnual
2021225.6147.6141.145.6113.564.159.7155.6137.014.21104.0
2020139.5342.8178.225.554.7164.5187.9137.9153.4228.0206.6232.72051.7
2019146.8115.0228.5100.7112.576.682.7228.9175.5160.7148.1220.61796.6
2018274.6155.686.294.370.465.958.6179.1148.3140.9172.6201.01647.5
LTA166.7126.5141.296.894.789.7100.9132.5131.5176.0170.4180.21607.1

Mean temperature in degrees Celsius for NEWPORT

YearJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecAnnual
20215.06.77.99.010.413.317.516.415.210.411.3
20207.26.06.611.012.813.814.416.013.810.59.16.110.6
20196.98.47.910.211.713.116.315.513.710.37.17.110.7
20185.94.65.59.113.116.116.115.012.410.98.38.110.5
LTA6.16.17.39.011.513.815.415.413.510.88.36.510.3

Mean 10cm soil temperature for NEWPORT at 0900 UTC

YearJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecAnnual
20213.65.06.88.210.914.317.916.315.2n/a11.0
20205.74.75.49.713.014.814.916.313.79.58.05.110.1
20196.16.16.88.912.213.816.715.713.59.46.25.610.1
20184.42.94.08.213.117.418.415.112.19.66.66.69.9
LTAn/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/a

Global Solar Radiation in Joules/cm2 for NEWPORT

YearJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecAnnual
202166201334720370456945569045488494554049022413849300416
2020626310808245454619258476435374021540555255581848763195209326164
2019537810595213063764849884496074539537116264601740681674766313728
2018597613390252693470958446598495144834923226191712378424068335662
LTAn/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/a

Potential Evapotranspiration (mm) for NEWPORT

YearJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecAnnual
20217.622.930.762.976.370.787.867.538.31.1465.8
202017.621.935.070.291.672.966.266.442.728.113.610.4536.6
201913.421.535.460.479.078.279.562.942.829.214.814.3531.4
201816.321.835.752.088.2102.487.258.737.930.218.011.5559.9
LTAn/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/a

Evaporation (mm) for NEWPORT

YearJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecAnnual
202110.932.145.489.9111.2102.0117.293.552.11.7656.0
202022.431.951.898.9130.8104.894.392.759.138.818.113.6757.2
201917.729.552.087.3111.6112.8109.688.859.939.618.917.9745.6
201821.930.251.776.4127.4140.4120.782.253.140.622.814.9782.3
LTAn/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/a

DEGREE DAYS BELOW 15.5 DEGREE CELSIUS FOR NEWPORT

YearJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecTotal
202132524723620016779202340N/AN/AN/AN/A
2020257276275143111735531711561932911935
2019266200235165130892736671642512621892
20182983063091941045031441001472152302027

Notes on the Data

Evaporation and PE data are calculated using Penman/Monteith formulae.
The ‘LTA’ (referred to within a table) is average for the climatological long-term-average (LTA) reference period 1981-2010.
Data updated daily at Mid-day.