Storm Eowyn

By Paul Homewood

Well, the Met Office got the headline it wanted!

https://x.com/metoffice/status/1882791163796619454

What they forgot to tell us is that Drumalbin is at the top of an 800 ft hill in Lanarkshire:

https://en-gb.topographic-map.com/map-pgqdgt/Carmichael/?center=55.62577%2C-3.73514&zoom=14&popup=55.62731%2C-3.73076

Whitecastle Hill

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/7354949

It is yet another of the Met Office sites set up in recent years on top of hills and clifftops, with the intention of exaggerating wind speeds to the general public. (Drumalbin was set up in 1984, but there is no record of wind measurements there before 1994 at the earliest.)

The Irish Met Office has also claimed the strongest gusts on record in Ireland, 114 mph. However the previous record was 113 mph in 1961. Statistically Eowyn was no stronger statistically, given the margins of error on the measuring equipment. In fact a storm in January 1945 registered 113 mph in LImerick, before the instrument pen went off the chart!

https://x.com/MetEireann/status/1882659454346510488

But whether or not it was a record for the Republic of Ireland, Eowyn most certainly was nowhere a record for Ireland as a whole.

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/uk-climate-extremes

That storm in January 1974 affected Scotland and northern England very severely too:

https://digital.nmla.metoffice.gov.uk/IO_087d9ce2-5a2c-4903-bd2c-b3f4c77406b9/

Gusts of 99 mph in Lerwick, 100 mph at Bell Rock, 97 mph at Eskdalemuir, 91 mph in Tiree and 97 mph in West Freugh, Wigtownshire tell the story. In England, Ringway recorded 83 mph, Carlisle 80 mph, Shoeburyness 89 mph and the Scillies 94 mph. (See here)

The best the Met Office can come up with is its tired old selection of hill and clifftops like Brizlee Wood (800 ft) and Aberdaron. Killowen had the highest gust in N Ireland of 92 mph, well below the 124 mph winds in 1974.

To get a true comparison, we can compare less exposed sites now with their wind speeds in 1974:

Clearly the 1974 storm was much stronger in Ireland and Scotland. And that is only one storm – there have been many others which we know were more powerful still. In Scotland, for instance: