Rare Storm Ellen pummels British Isles

An unusually early windstorm struck northwestern Europe into Friday, packing hurricane-force winds and flooding rainfall as it slammed the British Isles.

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The rarely-used red status wind warning was issued by Met Éireann Wednesday night in the Cork area of Ireland and orange status across other parts of southern and western Ireland.

Wind gusts from Ellen increased into Thursday from west to east across the British Isles and northwestern France with reports of gusts as high as 60-75 mph (100-120 km/h), especially across southern Ireland.

On Thursday, Roches Point, just southeast of Cork in Ireland recorded a wind gust of 89 mph (143 km/h) and Shannon Airport recorded a wind gust of 70 mph (113 km/h). A wind gust of 95 mph (150 km/h) was recorded at Cairngorm Summit in Scotland.

Winds of this magnitude initially left 200,000 homes and businesses without power in Ireland and another 500 in Wales.

Emerging videos and photos showed the power of the winds as trees and branches litter the roadways in Ireland, all of which could have been made worse because of the early-season timing of Ellen.

"One of the more dangerous aspects of an early windstorm like this is that there are still leaves on the trees across the region. The extra weight on the tree limbs in the strong winds will increase the chances of not only tree damage, but also vehicle and property damage and power cuts," stated AccuWeather Meteorologist Tyler Roys.

Flooding was also a widespread concern into Friday. The combination of flooding rainfall and coastal inundation left cars and lower levels of homes underwater.

Areas that were hit particularly bad with flooding included Cork, Skibbereen, Kinsale, Midleton and Bantry.

"Ellen's wrath will continue with heavy rain and strong wind, through Friday evening," said Roys.

The UK Met Office's yellow alert for wind across Wales and England which remains in effect until 1800 Friday evening.

A Storm Ellen continues to wane into Friday night, there will still be spells of rain and blustery conditions.

Downed trees and power lines on rail lines and roadways may extend transportation delays across the region into the start of the weekend.

The above satellite image taken early on Wednesday evening shows Storm Ellen spinning toward the British Isles (Photo/NASA).

The potent storm has been traversing the North Atlantic Ocean this week and was given the name Ellen on Tuesday evening, local time, by Met Éireann, the Irish Meteorology Service.

Most windstorms occur between October and April, making a windstorm in August a rarity. So much so that when it came to giving this week's storm a name, the Met Éireann gave it the next unused name on the 2019-2020 season name list.

Since 1990, only 11 August windstorms have formed in the North Atlantic Ocean. Of those 11 windstorms, most of them ultimately impacted the British Isles. Most of those windstorms were also tropical in nature, hurricanes or tropical storms from the Tropical Atlantic Ocean basin that curved northeastward toward Europe.

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