Storm Éowyn Lashes Ireland and Scotland as hurricane-force winds ground flights

LONDON (AP) — Millions of people in Ireland and northern parts of the United Kingdom were urged to stay home Friday as the hurricane crippled power grids and brought widespread travel disruption.

Forecasters have issued a rare ‘red’ weather warning, meaning danger to life, across the entire island of Ireland and central and south-west Scotland.

Ireland was hit by wind gusts of 114 pH (183 km/h), the strongest since World War II, as A winter storm Sparail of the Atlantic before hitting Scotland.

Schools were closed and trains, ferries and more than 1,000 flights were canceled in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, even as far south as London’s Heathrow, like the system, named Storn Éowyn (pronounced Ay-Oh- win) by the meteorological authorities, roared. The storm was moving quickly, however, and was expected to clear the shores of Scotland by late Friday.

City centers such as Dublin in Ireland, Belfast in Northern Ireland and Glasgow in Scotland were eerily silent, much like the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, as shops remained closed and people heeded advice not to venture out. For those who left home and were caught in one of the gusts of wind, it was a struggle to stay upright.

“Please stay at home if you can,” Northern Ireland Prime Minister Michelle O’Neill said on BBC Radio Ulster. “We are in the eye of the storm now. We are in the red alert period. »

The Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh closed and Scottish First Minister John Swinney said: “We must be clear. People should not travel.

More than 700,000 homes and businesses in Ireland and almost 100,000 in Northern Ireland were without power due to “unprecedented, widespread and extensive” damage to electricity infrastructure, the Irish Electricity Supply Board said. More than 20,000 customers in Scotland are also believed to have lost power.

Ireland’s weather office, Met Eireann, said gusts of 114 mph were recorded at Mace Head on the west coast, breaking a record of 113 mph (182 km/h) set in 1945.

Wind speeds in Scotland were expected to be slightly lower throughout the day, but still very high, and authorities urged people to remain vigilant, particularly in coastal areas.

Some of the storm’s energy originated from the system that brought Historic snowfalls along the United States Gulf Coastsaid Jason Nicholls, head of international forecaster at private weather company Accuweather.

The storm is propelled by the jet stream and is fueled by energy at upper levels of the atmosphere. A rapid drop in air pressure is expected and could make éowyn a cyclonewhich happens when a storm’s pressure drops by 24 millibars in 24 hours.

The exact influence of climate change Over a storm is difficult, but all storms occur in an atmosphere that is warming unusually quickly due to human-related pollutants like carbon dioxide and methane.

“As the climate warms, we can expect these storms to become even more intense, with greater damages,” said Hayley Fowler, professor of climate change impact at Newcastle University. .