Storm Éowyn hits Ireland and UK, causing power outages and transport disruptions

Ireland and Scotland were put on high alert in the face of Storm Éowyn.
Storm Éowyn struck Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland on Friday, causing havoc, leaving one person dead, hundreds of thousands of homes without power, planes grounded and schools closed, officials said.
Millions of people in three countries were urged to shelter in place from the “devastating” storm as Ireland recorded the strongest wind gusts on record. A man has died after a tree fell on his car in Ireland, police said.
Wind gusts of 183 km/h (114 mph), breaking an 80-year-old record, tore down power lines, felled trees, blocked roads and destroyed two sporting facilities in Ireland.
The highest level of red alert had been lifted in Ireland and Scotland by the evening, but authorities still urged caution.
Kate Forbes, Scotland’s deputy first minister, told BBC radio: “It’s really important that people follow the advice not to travel, because if people stay at home and don’t travel, they’re not putting themselves at that risk. That’s because it’s a thing.”
Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland have closed schools and canceled trains, flights and ferries.
After the winds eased, airlines announced they had canceled more than 120 scheduled departures and 110 arrivals at Dublin Airport, with the first flight taking off at around 9:30 p.m. Japan time. It was announced that.
Flights were also canceled at other airports including Belfast in Northern Ireland and Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland.
Damage in Ireland included winds destroying an ice skating rink near Dublin and a multi-million pound indoor games facility in west County Mayo.


Other parts of the British Isles were also feeling the effects of the storm.
Catriona Heffernan, 25, from Galway, Ireland, said the winds were “crazy” even in the early stages of the storm, adding that five 60-year-old trees were uprooted.
“One of them split in two, and it’s scary to think how strong the winds were that could have done that,” she said.
Satellite images suggest a dangerous weather phenomenon known as a sting jet occurred over Ireland on Friday morning, the Met Office said.
A sting jet is a small area of extremely strong winds that can reach wind speeds of over 100 miles per hour.
The same type of extreme weather event caused the Great Storm in the UK in October 1987, which claimed 18 lives.
“Dangerous and destructive”
Power suppliers said 715,000 homes and businesses were without power in Ireland and more than 93,000 in Northern Ireland.
The highest wind speed recorded in the UK on Friday was 149 km/h at Brisley Wood in Northumberland, northeast England, the Met Office said.
The strongest wind gust ever recorded in the UK was 228 kilometers per hour in Fraserburgh, eastern Scotland, on February 13, 1989.


Flights and ferries were canceled as forecasters warned the storm could cause havoc.
Irish weather forecaster Met Eireann told the X show that the previous record in Ireland was 182km/h, set in 1945.
Northern Ireland Power Network said Storm Éowyn was causing “extensive damage” to the power network.
“Once the red weather warning has been lifted, we will begin assessing the damage to our network after 2 p.m.,” the company said in a statement.
More than 22,000 homes in Scotland were without power and power lines were damaged by fallen trees and debris, suppliers said.
Hundreds of schools closed for the day and rail operator ScotRail suspended all services. Many railway lines in northern England were also abolished.
The Environment Agency has warned of flooding across southern and central England in the coming days.
Ahead of the storm, around 4.5 million people received emergency alerts on their mobile phones on Thursday, in what the UK government said on Thursday was “the largest ever use of the tool in the wild”.
Scientists have shown that climate change caused by humans burning fossil fuels is intensifying storms by increasing ocean temperatures, making them more intense.
However, the storm is a natural phenomenon, and to date there has been no concrete scientific attribution of this storm to climate change.
© 2025 AFP
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