3 weeks of unusually settled weather came to an abrupt this week thanks to the arrival of an unusual summer wind storm. Thanks to an increase in temperature gradient over North America, our sleepy trans Atlantic jet stream awoke and spawned an unusually deep Atlantic low and may have reached it’s peak as it passed just north of Ireland and Britain.

With central pressure estimated to have reached 969mb to the NW of Scotland, this may have been the deepest June low near to the UK on record. According to NCEP reannalysis the previous recorded was 977.7mb set back in 1962.

While June or summer storms aren’t unheard of, they are fairly uncommon. Low pressure at this time of year tends to be flabby and more rain rather than wind producers. Since 2004, outwith the highest mountain stations, there have only been two occations where winds reached 69 mph in Scotland. Between 2004 and 2014 there were no reports.

This week’s storm produced widespread 50 mph winds across Ireland’s north and west as well as Scotland, northern England and Wales. There was significant downing or snapping of trees due to full leaf and this caused a nightmare to the road and rail network.

Gusts of 75 mph at the mouth of Belfast Lough reportedly stopped two cruise ships from docking.

Both Glasgow and Belfast International Airports reported gusts in excess of 60 mph but the strongest official UK gust was 74 mph at Orlock Head on the north Down coast. This is in fact the strongest June wind gust for Northern Ireland since June 23, 1962 when a gust of 76 mph was recorded.

Notoriously exposed and windy Cairngorm Summit just 12 miles east of Aviemore observed gusts of 105 mph with 100 mph reported on top of Cairnwell in the east Highlands and Great Dun Fell in the north Pennines.

Stornoway enjoys longest period without rain

For the 3 weeks of sustained high pressure dominated weather, Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis grabbed the headlines.

According to professor Eddy Graham. Stornoway observed 23 consecutive days without a drop of rainfall. With reliable records dating back to 1930, Dr Graham said that there are three noteworthy dry spells in Stornoway, 1958, 1974 and most recently 2008 but all produced at least some rainfall.

1974 was an impressive dry spell with 37 days and only 0.2mm of rain. In 2008, 23 days and 0.4mm but 2018 may have set a new record with 23 consecutive days without a drop!

Tags: june wind, orlock head, stornoway