Former Hurricane Ophelia Hits Ireland And Scotland With Heavy Winds And Rain
What was Hurricane Ophelia hit Ireland early this morning as a post-tropical storm with heavy winds and rain, and Met Éireann, Ireland’s National Meteorological Service, fears heavy flooding. There is a wind warning for the whole country as the storm moves toward Scotland. Met Éireann is saying that former Hurricane Ophelia constitutes a national emergency, and everyone should stay indoors.
Former Hurricane Ophelia made landfall with 109 mph winds taking out power in 360,000 homes and businesses in the Irish Republic, 1,300 in Northern Ireland and 4,000 in Wales, with those numbers likely to increase. At this time, two people in Ireland are dead including a woman who died when a tree hit her car and a man who was killed as a result of a chainsaw accident in County Tipperary when a man tried to remove a tree downed by Ophelia.
BBC weatherman Chris Fawkes said that everyone should expect unusually high winds.
“This is one of the strongest storms you’re going to see this year.”
But perhaps the strangest thing seen in the skies over the United Kingdom is the odd color, which is red and yellow. The winds associated with former Hurricane Ophelia have dragged dust from the Sahara through the atmosphere giving the skies an eery quality. Ophelia is said to be the worst storm to his Ireland since the “Great Storm of 1987.”
Ophelia, Strongest Eastern Atlantic Hurricane Ever Recorded, Barrels Toward Ireland and into History Books https://t.co/O29xj23RGQ #gay
— Guy Social (@GuySocialNYC) October 16, 2017
While Hurricane Ophelia no longer packs the strength to be considered a hurricane, what remains of Hurricane Ophelia hit Ireland with wind strength that is being referred to as a cyclone. Hurricane Ophelia is being called the strongest Eastern Atlantic hurricane ever as it is the only storm to sustain category 3 strength so far outside the waters of the Caribbean and the southeastern United States.
Post-Hurricane Ophelia is expected to weaken as it moves through Ireland and North Ireland towards Scotland and Northern England, and it is expected to clear the British Isles by Tuesday morning. The winds from Hurricane Ophelia have also hit the Iberian Peninsula, where they have fanned wildfires in Spain and Portugal, killing thirty people.
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While Hurricane Ophelia hitting Ireland and Scotland might seem unusual, the Washington Post says it’s not as rare as you might think. Since 1851, forty-five one-time hurricanes and tropical storms have traveled a similar path. Storms of varying strength move across this path about every five years.
Ironically, in 2005 and 2011, storms called Ophelia have traveled a similar path and hit the United Kingdom as former Hurricane Ophelia. What is saving Ireland, Wales, and Scotland from being hit by an actual hurricane is the cooler water (the water temperature off the coast of the southern tip of Ireland is sixty degrees at present) and colder air.
Are you surprised that former Hurricane Ophelia has made its way to Ireland, Scotland, and Wales?
[Featured Image by Charles McQuillian/Getty Images]
