From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

The 1980s and 90s were full of storms we have not seen the likes of since. The Great Storm of 1987, Bruar, Burns Day, not to mention others which did not even get named.

But one which has gone under the radar since is the Boxing Day Storm in 1998.

Paul Vogan gave us the basic facts:.

A powerful low battered the UK from early Christmas Eve through 29 December but peaked on Boxing Day with mean winds of 60 mph lasting over 12 hours. The storm underwent rapid cyclogenesis as it departed Ireland and crossed Scotland with a 19mb pressure drop within just 3 hours, bottoming out at 947mb at it’s peak.

Malin Head, Donegal bore the brunt of the strongest winds located on the storm’s southern flank. Sustained winds clocked 77 mph over a 10 minute average with gusts of 110 mph, just 3 mph shy of this site’s strongest ever wind gust of 113 mph set in 1961. Prestwick Airport, Ayrshire recorded a gust of 103 mph while even Glasgow suffered damaging gusts of 93 mph.

http://www.markvoganweather.com/2017/10/24/uk-irelands-most-powerful-storms-of-the-last-34-years/

Note the winds speeds at Prestwick and Glasgow. Nowadays the Met Office hypes up a gust of 86 mph on a 400 ft clifftop.

And a Met Office report listed the effects of the storm in Northern Ireland. As in Scotland, 100 mph + winds were widespread at low level sites. In many parts, average wind speeds reached Storm Force 10 on the Beaufort Scale.

I love to look at some of the news and weather items on TV at the time, and below is a montage of weather forecasts that week in 1998, including good old Michael Fish!

It is a bit repetitive, and in the middle it’s a bit jerky, but it lays out how the forecasts developed over the days leading up to Boxing Day.

What is particularly noteworthy is the run of successive Lows, each bringing wind and rain during the week. Nowadays we are told there is something unusual if we get a week of wet and windy weather!

Watch and enjoy the events of 25 years ago: