LONDON (AFP) – Ireland recorded its strongest-ever wind gusts yesterday as “destructive” Storm Eowyn barrelled in from the Atlantic, the island’s weather agency said.
Gusts of 183 kilometres per hour (kph) were recorded early in the morning near the Galway coast in the west, Met Eireann said on X. The previous record, of 182kph, was recorded in 1945, it said.
Ireland and Scotland were put on high alert ahead of Eowyn making landfall, with schools ordered to close and trains cancelled.
“It is going to be a damaging, dangerous and destructive weather event,” the chair of Ireland’s National Emergency Coordination Group Keith Leonard said on Thursday, warning of power outages and urging people to stay indoors. Britain was placed on general alert, with United Kingdom-governed Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland under the top-level red warning.
A government spokesman said 4.5 million people in at-risk areas would receive telephone alerts. Ireland’s meteorological office also issued a red alert for the country.
Britain’s environment agency warned of flooding in southern and central England over the coming days.
Scientists said climate change caused by humans burning fossil fuels is making storms more severe, super-charged by warmer oceans.
