Storm Isha hits the UK and northern Europe: wind gusts of 150-170 km/h, 1 casualty, flash floods and heavy snow in Scandinavia
A powerful storm named Isha hit the British Isles yesterday, bringing strong winds, flash floods, power outages, while trees were unrooted. Isha was a low pressure system that brought heavy snowfall over the northeastern US at the end of last week, and developed as it crossed the Atlantic to a deep low pressure system which reached nearly 950 millibars yesterday and is moving really fast in a northeastern direction towards Scandinavia.
Storm Tracking - #stormIsha
— UK Weather Updates (@UKWX_) January 21, 2024
[UPDATE 2] Storm Isha nearing peak intensity. Wind and rain beginning to push in, with peak winds occurring between 6pm - 6am. There is a small risk of an isolated tornado as it passes through, especially across Ireland and Scotland.
Intensity pic.twitter.com/RipHVcG0sw
Storm Isha, brought wind gusts up to 150-170 km/h, reaching Hurricane Category 2 in wind force. In Northumberland, wind gusts of 159 km/h were recorded, while the highest wind speed that was recorded was 172 km/h on the Tay Bridge overnight, in Scotland. The strong winds caused an 84-year-old man in Fife, Scotland to lose his life due to a crash into a fallen tree. At least 30.000 people have no power in northern England and Scotland, while 40.000 are the people with no power in Northern Ireland.
— Alex Barnicoat (@mrbarnicoat) January 22, 2024
A video of a wheelie bin being caught inside of the insane winds from Storm Isha earlier#StormIsha
pic.twitter.com/unxQXNjUeB
Dun Laoghaire harbour in Ireland during storm Isha yesterday #StormIsha pic.twitter.com/LX4YfvMh5d
— Volcaholic (@volcaholic1) January 22, 2024
The winds caused many flights to cancel across the UK, while some of them did not land at their planned destination. For example, a flight from Edinburgh to Bristol on Sunday afternoon was landed in Paris, while another flight from Sharm El Sheikh to Glasgow Airport declared an emergency because of the storm and diverted to Manchester airport. Trains also had to reduce their speed to a 80 km/h speed limit. Dozens of flood alerts and reports were issued, while a few schools closed for today. Storm Isha is the ninth named storm to hit the UK since the season began in September.
Travel chaos with trains cancelled across UK as gusts hit 90mph
— Anees Khan Tareen (@anees_tareen) January 21, 2024
The country is blanketed by "unusual" danger-to-life wind warnings ahead of Storm Isha.
Video of the plan trying to land during high winds.#StormIsha #RYR6333 #storm #Dublinairport #Dublin #Ireland #UK #Windy pic.twitter.com/9PwH9oM87O
Isha, is bringing severe weather to all northwestern and northern Europe. Scattered showers, locally intense were spread across the Low Countries, France, Germany, Poland and Scandinavia, while now and the next hours will affect the Baltic states and from Scandinavia mostly northern Sweden and Finland with wintry showers or snow locally heavy. Winds are still strong across northwestern Europe with gusts reaching 100-110 km/h in Scotland, Northern Sea and Norwegian Sea.
Tomorrow, a new fast moving low pressure system from the Atlantic Ocean, named Jocelyn, will move northeastwards bringing again severe weather to the same countries, with the most danger of strong winds and intense showers or snow across Ireland, Scotland, northern England and by the end of the day Norway and Denmark. Wind gusts will reach nearly 120-130 km/h at the end of the day across the northwestern British Isles with a wave height at 9-11m western of Ireland! The new storm is really powerful and is expected to cause new flash floods and disasters.