Back on Tuesday it was the 29th anniversary of former Hurricane Charley’s hit on Ireland.
Charley will be remembered as one of the worst storms to hit the country in living memory. It not only dropped all-time record amounts of rain causing roads and bridges to wash away but caused damaging winds over hurricane-force. Yes, no longer a ‘hurricane’, extra-tropical cyclones which originated within the tropics, often pack just as hard a punch outwith as within the tropics.
Charley initially developed as a subtropical storm on August 13, 1986 within the Gulf of Mexico but become a fully tropical entity on the 15th off the South Carolina coast. It was the 3rd storm and 2nd hurricane of the season.
On August 15th it brushed along the Outer Banks of North Carolina as a 987mb, 80 mph hurricane before heading out to sea, only slowly transitioning into an extra-tropical cyclone over the cold waters of the North Atlantic.
Charley caused coastal flooding and minor wind damage along with cutting power to 110,000 customers in southeast Virginia due to high winds. The storm caused $15 million worth of damage then.
Charley’s Greatest Impact Was In Ireland As An Extra-tropical Cyclone
Charley’s greatest impact and intensity came many hundreds of miles outwith the warm waters of tropics. Due to ‘baroclinic instability’, Charley weakened as it left the warm Gulf Stream but later re-intensified as a cold core low off SW Ireland. It became a large and strong gale-centre with central pressure at 980mb, lower than when it was at it’s strongest as a hurricane.
Interestingly, Charley’s remnants spawned a separate extra-tropical low which dove south, dissipating near Spain while the main system crossed just south of Ireland as quite the beast.
Hurricane Charley in 1986.
Picture shows the devastation caused by the storms at Harolds Cross, Dublin
On August 24, Charley dumped a lot of rain widely across Eire but as much as 11 inches (280mm) fell on Kippure, located in the mountains south of Dublin. 7.8 inches (200mm) fell within 24 hours at Kilcoole, setting a new national rainfall record for a 24 hour period. Dublin reported it’s heaviest rains in 100 years.
Record rainfall was also reported in both England and Wales as the centre tracked through the English Channel. 50 mph winds were records through the channel, generating 26ft waves which halted ferry services between England and France was well as Northern Ireland and Scotland.
The summer of 1986 was a real washout of a summer with a thundery June, dullest July in 30 years and August saw a succession of storms according to one record.
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