Series of storms has harsh impact in winter 2015

Meteorological agencies in Ireland and the UK announced a joint scheme for naming storms this winter.

Not long after that, the storms named under the scheme started to arrive on our shores. Here’s a take on their impact.

Storm Abigail

Abigail buffeted the British Isles with strong winds and heavy rain in mid-November.

The occasion proved happily anti-climactic for people in Ireland, and although high winds felled trees and caused some flight delays at Dublin Airport, the worst ravages of the storm were reserved for northern England and Scotland.

Barney

Just days had passed before Storm Barney arrived on November 17th. It prompted status yellow wind warnings which caused 45,000 ESB customers to lose power, but little lasting damage was done.

Clodagh

Continuing the progression, Storm Clodagh saw wind warnings ramped up to status orange in late November with gusts of over 130km/h rocking western areas, and spot flooding in parts of the country.

Desmond

Whereas preceding storms were notable for high winds, Desmond brought extraordinary amounts of rainfall, topping 100mm in western and southern areas following a rare status red warning from Met Éireann.

Swollen rivers and waterways burst their banks in Cork, Limerick, Galway and Mayo, leaving homes and businesses flooded and causing the Government to allocate €5 million in flood relief to traders and set up emergency clinics in black spots such as Claremorris, Athlone and Ballinasloe.

Eva

The aptly-named Storm Eva made landfall on Christmas Eve and brought relatively benign consequences, with a few thousands homes left without power following a status orange wind warning across the west and south.

Frank

With ground already saturated across the country, the inopportune combination of strong winds, heavy rain and high tides served to exacerbate the already precarious situation facing many people in the aftermath of Storm Desmond.

Whereas the probability of flooding in Galway and Cork in particular had been well flagged, residents in vulnerable locations in Kilkenny and Wexford were given relatively short notice before heavy rain sent flood waters cascading down main streets in locations including Enniscorthy, Thomastown and Graiguenamanagh.

(Almost) Storm Gertrude

There was speculation that a follow-up weather system on December 30th would give us Gertrude, but this was downgraded and perhaps provided some badly needed relief for many hit by flooding, or nearly so, in recent weeks.