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A look back on Storm Éowyn

A week on from Storm Éowyn, we look back at the storm, its impacts and how the forecast developed.

Storm Éowyn was the UK’s most powerful windstorm for over a decade, bringing red warnings, severe impacts and, tragically, fatalities.

According to Met Office analysis of the storm, it was also the most significant windstorm for Northern Ireland since the Boxing Day Storm of 1998.

A 100mph gust was recorded at Drumalbin, while 15 UK stations with more than ten years of history recorded their own respective highest January wind gust. Roads were closed, thousands were without power, ferries and trains were cancelled and sadly lives were lost as impacts were felt for many as part of the multi-hazard event, with strong winds, rain and snow for some.

How the forecast developed

The Met Office’s YouTube forecast Ten Day Trend on 15 January first highlighted the possibility of wet and windy weather in the second half of the week commencing 20 January, which obviously came to pass.

As is usually the case, forecast confidence increased closer to the time, which resulted in further Met Office communications, the naming of the system and ultimately a plethora of warnings, including red warnings.

Date Text 19 January WEEK AHEAD Animated graphic signalling a change to wet and windy conditions. 20 January PRESS RELEASES First press release issued signalling unsettled conditions for the week ahead especially from Thursday 23 January. Further four press releases issued across the week saw over 360k webpage views. 20 January NATIONAL SEVERE WEATHER WARNING Yellow warning for strong wind issued for Friday 24 into Saturday 25 January for western Scotland and Northern Ireland. 20 January PRESENTED FORECAST Presented forecast highlighted the major change ahead for Friday 24 January, showing possible tracks for the low-pressure system. 21 January STORM ÉOWYN Storm Éowyn named with further yellow wind warnings issued for Scotland, Northern Ireland, northern England, Wales and the southwest. 21 January DEEP DIVE ON YOUTUBE Looked at Storm Éowyn and the chance of damaging winds. 21-25 January SOCIAL MEDIA 17.02m impressions across all social channels with 30.82k new followers. X – 6.81m impressions, 5.34k new followers Facebook - 5.5m impressions, 8.85k new followers Instagram – 1.12m impressions, 2.45k new followers TikTok - 1.01m video views, 2.58k new followers Threads – 183k impressions YouTube - 2.4m views, 11.6k new subscribers 21-25 January MEDIA COVERAGE Met Office mentioned 23,750 times between Tuesday 21 to Saturday 25 January with 30 press briefings on Thursday. Met Office staff quoted 5,933 times. 21-25 January WEBSITE TRAFFIC The warnings page saw 2.2m views between the 21-25 January. The website saw 14.7m views across the week from 3m active users. 21-25 January APP USERS Across our Android and iOS app we saw around 2.3m active users and around 15.8m sessions. 21-25 January GOVERNMENT AND MULTIAGENCY BRIEFINGS Civil Contingency Advisors provided 152 UK wide emergency responder briefings. 32 Central and Devolved Government briefings took place. 22 January AMBER WARNING An amber warning for strong winds issued across Northern Ireland, northwestern Wales, northern England and central and southern Scotland. Yellow warnings for wind, rain and snow were also issued. 23 January AMBER WARNING An additional amber warning for wind was issued for northern Scotland. 23 January RED WARNINGS Two red warnings for strong wind were issued for Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland for the passage of Storm Éowyn across the UK. 23 January EMERGENCY ALERTS Government emergency alerts were sent to all people in the red warning areas of Northern Ireland and Scotland. 24 January WIND GUSTS A gust of 114mph was recorded at Mace head, Co.Galway, a provisional record for the Republic of Ireland. A 100mph gust was recorded in Drumalbin, Lanarkshire, the 11th highest max gust recorded in all named storms since 2015. 26 January CONTINUEDUPDATES On the latest weather situation to enable Storm Éowyn recovery operations.

The first warnings for the system were issued on 20 January, before it had even formed as a distinct system out in the Atlantic. As confidence of impacts increased, Storm Éowyn was given its name on 21 January, still before the system had formed, but modelling suggested an impactful and damaging period of weather on the way.

Senior Presenter and Meteorologist, Alex Deakin, recently said:

“Thanks to developments and innovation in forecasting, we can now fairly regularly predict these impactful weather systems before they even form, thousands of miles away from the UK. While the atmosphere is inherently chaotic in nature, our complex forecasting models that we have been developing for decades are now so advanced we're able to communicate incoming impactful weather well in advance, helping people, businesses and responders prepare and stay safe."

While developing under the influence of a powerful jet stream, the system underwent a process referred to as ‘explosive cyclogenesis’, which is when the pressure of the storm rapidly deepens over a 24-hour period.

Click here for the full press release

 

Channel website: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk

Original article link: https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/blog/2025/a-look-back-on-storm-eowyn

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