Ireland takes weather battering

[tropicana]

28 October 2004
Northern Ireland woke up today (Thursday) drenched by torrential rain and whipped by strong winds.

Weather experts said there would be more blusters and showers today but the worst of the gales are over.

The heavy downpours caused problems overnight for motorists across the province and the Met Office reported gusts of up to 60mph on the Co Down coast at Orlock Head.

The Foyle Bridge in Derry was closed around 7.40pm Wednesday due to high winds but was open again by Thursday morning.

Landslides were reported on the coast road between Carnlough and Larne.

The Newry-bound carriageway at Warrenpoint, Co Down, was closed because of flooding, and there was also severe flooding at Springvale Road between Ballywalter and Ballyhalbert.

The south promenade in Newcastle was also closed for a time as huge waves spilled over the sea wall onto the road.

Early today, police reported that all roads had re-opened but warneddrivers to proceed with caution.

A spokeswoman said: "Motorists should watch their speed and leave a good distance between themselves and other road users."

Passengers on an Irish ferries vessel were stranded off the Welsh coast for a time before docking safely around 1.30am and the North Merchant ferry from Liverpool was due to arrive two hours late around 8am.

Meanwhile, parts of Cork and Waterford were flooded as the severe weather hit the Republic.

Motorists were trapped in their cars by flood water.

Many parts of Cork city centre were affected.

Elsewhere, planes have been diverted and ferries cancelled.

-justin-

[P.K.]

http://www.storm2k.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=51006&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

[P.K.]

Just found out today this system dropped 12hPa in 12hours and then dropped a further 29hPa in the following 12 hours.

Only needs to drop 24hPa in 24 hours to be a bomb, this dropped 41hPa in that time.

This is using the Met Office figure of 953hPa at 1am on the 27th. I've seen reports of it dropping as low as 949hPa. (Don't know how close this was to the time that a ship measured a sustained wind speed of 66kts as the ship measured a presure of 955hPa)