Almost A million homes and businesses across Ireland were left without power on Friday as deep depression Éowyn lashed parts of Scotland with hurricane-force winds. Schools remained closed, trains and ferries did not run, and more than 1,000 flights were canceled in Ireland and Britain. The storm also claimed at least one victim, reports TASR with reference to the Irish television RTÉ and the AP agency.
Meteorologists have issued a rare red alert for the whole of Ireland, as well as central and south-west Scotland, warning of life-threatening conditions. After the wind weakened, this warning and warnings of lower degrees – orange and yellow – were cancelled.
Damage caused by the storm, during which a record wind gust of 183 km/h was recorded, are still being evaluated. Gusts of more than 130 km/h were recorded in many places on the coast of Ireland. According to local police, a man died after a tree fell on his car in County Donegal, located in the northwest of Ireland.
Electricity company ESB Networks said that approximately 625,000 of its customers are without electricity. In Northern Ireland, the outage affected around 240,000 households and businesses. An ESB official told RTÉ that the storm had caused unprecedented damage across the electricity network and it would take more than a week to restore supplies in the most affected areas.
According to the water company Uisce Éireann, more than 120,000 people are without water supplies. This is due to the fact that sewage treatment plants do not have electricity. As a result of the storm, 160,000 households and companies are without internet, said the telecommunications company Eir.
After Éowyn passed below, cold air began to flow into Ireland. Temperatures in some places will drop to minus two degrees Celsius at night. Such temperatures are expected especially in the center of the island, where it was 12 degrees the night before. The drop in temperatures will be accompanied by sleet or snow in places in Ireland.
Low pressure Éowyn was created by a process called explosive cyclogenesis, during which the air pressure at the center of the cyclone drops by 24 millibars in 24 hours. Wind blowing over the ocean encounters less resistance than over land, which allows it to reach considerable speed.
