Christmas Eve Storm of 1997

Been twenty one years now since this infamous storm and here is my historical post on it..... it's the Christmas Eve storm of 1997.

Synoptics show a depression with a minimum pressure of 972mb crossing Ireland during the 24th December 1997. This storm moved northeastwards and as it did so, it resulted in winds gusting to hurricane force over parts of Munster and storm force for places in Leinster. This was a very severe event and the worst storm that southern regions of Ireland had seen since at least the storms of January 1974 and gusts were also comparable to those of Debbie in September 1961.

Valentia Observatory equalled its record gust of 88 knots (163 km/h or 101 mph) with that of Debbie. As a comparison, Storm Darwin of February 2014 had a maximum gust of 74 knots (137 km/h or 85 mph). Shannon Airport had its windiest day since Debbie in 1961 with a gust of 83 knots (153 km/h or 95 mph) whilst Darwin recorded a gust of 86 knots (159 km/h or 99 mph) here so Darwin was slightly worse at Shannon Airport.

The following Irish Times article on 27th December 1997 says:

More than 15,000 homes are still without electricity this morning, including 4,500 in west Cork. The ESB says it could take more than 24 hours to reconnect supplies to all homes. Over Christmas, more than 135,000 homes were without electricity.

ESB crews worked flat out to repair fallen lines and two helicopters were drafted in to survey the damage. By yesterday morning, more than half of those who had lost power had it restored. The first fatality of the storm came at about 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve, when Mr Damian Fogarty (19) died when a wall fell on him in Waterville, Co Kerry. In Cork, Mr Joe Ryan (56) from Deanwood Avenue, Togher, suffered a suspected heart attack and died as he was trying to cut away the branches of a tree trapping a family of four in their car.

Explaining Met Eireann's position, the spokeswoman said: "The details are often very difficult to pin down. From Saturday we were talking about very severe winds. The storm was developing in the Atlantic. Its exact position was very, very difficult. When it came closer, a severe weather alert was issued about midday on Christmas Eve."

Sailings to and from Britain were cancelled on Christmas Eve, flights from Dublin to Cork, Shannon, Galway and Tralee were also cancelled, buses were frequently diverted because of fallen trees and trains were delayed by up to three hours. Gardai warned motorists to avoid travelling unless it was absolutely necessary. DART services could operate only between Bray and Dún Laoghaire.

More than 135,000 homes were without electricity over Christmas. The worst-hit areas were Tralee, Kanturk, Killarney and south Kerry, west Cork, Limerick and Clare, including Ennis and Limerick city, Waterford and parts of Wexford and Wicklow, Tipperary town, Nenagh and Portlaoise.

The ESB had more than 1,000 staff out in shifts of up to 30 hours seeking to restore the lines. Apart from west Cork, those still in the dark include homes in parts of Limerick, Waterford and some areas along the east coast.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/two-die-as-severe-winds-cause-havoc-to-thousands-at-christmas-1.140629

Here's a table of maximum wind gusts for selected Irish stations (with multiple measurements).

From December 1997 weather bulletin:

More articles on the event:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/when-storms-cause-endemic-creep-1.264460

http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/white%20manuscript%20lee.pdf

https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/j.1477-8696.1999.tb03999.x

http://eprints.maynoothuniversity.ie/9121/1/ICARUS_ThreeCenturyStorm2002.pdf

The following warning below on the BBC was given between programmes.

Satellite taken at midday on Christmas Eve 1997.