Soggy and stormy spell leaves NI doused – and sets new local windspeed records

The recent stormy spell saw some weather stations in the Province inundated with over a quarter of a month’s rainfall in a single 24 hour period – and it also set new records for blustery weather.
By Adam Kula
Published 22nd Aug 2020, 07:00 BST
Updated 22nd Aug 2020, 09:47 BST
A cyclist is hit by a wave as he cycles along the shoreline in Saltcoats on the west coast of North Ayrshire as gusts of up to 70mph could hit coastal areas as Storm Ellen moves on and leaves more wet and windy weather in its wake.A cyclist is hit by a wave as he cycles along the shoreline in Saltcoats on the west coast of North Ayrshire as gusts of up to 70mph could hit coastal areas as Storm Ellen moves on and leaves more wet and windy weather in its wake.
A cyclist is hit by a wave as he cycles along the shoreline in Saltcoats on the west coast of North Ayrshire as gusts of up to 70mph could hit coastal areas as Storm Ellen moves on and leaves more wet and windy weather in its wake.

The wintry Storm Ellen which battered the nation through Thursday and into yesterday saw seven out of the Province’s 31 weather stations record their highest wind speeds ever for the month of August, according to data from the Met Office.

l The highest such reading was at Thomastown, a townland to the south-east of Enniskillen. There, wind speed overnight from Thursday into yesterday hit 62mph – a new record for that station in the month of August.

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The previous highest August windspeed there had been 44mph in 2012.

l The runner-up was Magilligan in Co Londonderry, where a windspeed of 60mph was reached, breaking the station’s previous August record of 55mph, set in 2012.

(However, these are nowhere near the overall highest windspeed ever recorded in the Province –124mph at Kilkeel in January 1974.)

l In terms of rain, the Met Office said the wettest place in the Province was Ballypatrick Forest in north Antrim.

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There, 31.4 mm of rain fell between 9am on Friday and 9am on Saturday.

To put that in context, the average rainfall across NI for the whole month of August is 97.1 mm.

l The second-highest rainfall reading during the storm was at Stormont in Belfast, where 27.8 mm of rain was recorded in the same 24-hour period.

l Over the summer as a whole (June, July and August) Northern Ireland experienced 120% of the rainfall it can normally expect for the month of August, up to and including August 19.

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And once the heavy rain of Thursday and Friday is factored in, the percentage will be even higher.

Met Office forecaster Oli Claydon however, indicated to the News Letter that it did not appear to have been an especially extreme summer overall for Northern Ireland.

He offered the reminder that “August is the wettest month of summer” routinely, and that Scotland and Wales have both been wetter so far this summer.

Around 50,000 homes and businesses were without power overnight into Friday morning in the Republic of Ireland.

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In Northern Ireland, NI Electricity was saying there were power cuts yesterday afternoon in Dungannon and the Bellaghy-Tobermore area.

Showers with intermittent sun look likely to characterise the next few days said Mr Claydon, and although there are no weather warnings in place at time of writing for the rest of the week, Tuesday may well bring “another unsettled spell” to NI (although it is an “uncertain” forcast at present).

Related topics:ProvinceOli ClaydonBelfastNorthern IrelandEnniskillen