2018 Great Britain and Ireland cold wave

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2018 Great Britain and Ireland cold wave
Satellite view showing Europe, including Great Britain and Ireland partially covered in snow under the influence of the strong cold wave on 27 February 2018
Formed24 February 2018
Dissipated4 March 2018
Fatalities16 (preliminary) [1]
Areas affectedGreat Britain and Ireland

Beginning on 24 February 2018, the United Kingdom and Ireland were affected by a cold wave, dubbed the Beast from the East by the media, which brought widespread unseasonably low temperatures and heavy snowfall to large areas. The cold wave combined with Storm Emma, part of the 2017–18 UK and Ireland windstorm season, which made landfall in southwest England and southern Ireland on 2 March.

In contrast to usual winter storms, Emma was not formed as a normal low pressure area along with the jetstream; the initial event was an arctic outbreak due to a disordered polar vortex into Central Europe, transporting not only cold air from Siberia to Europe, but on the way to the British Islands according to the lake effect sent a lot of snow into areas of Great Britain and Ireland.

Beast from the East

See also: 2017–18 European windstorm season § Beast from the East

The cold spell nicknamed the Beast from the East was caused by a large arctic airmass with anticyclonic structure, stretching from the Russian Far East to the British Isles covering large parts of Asia and almost all of Europe. The anticyclone, centered over Scandinavia,[2] is the dominant high pressure area in the weather system and represents its European part. North Asia was covered by other anticyclones that belong to that giant arctic airmass. The anticyclone brought cold easterly winds into Europe and the British Isles leading to snowfall and sub-zero temperatures as result of freezing air from Siberia.[3][4] Ireland was predicted to experience its worst winter for at least 30 years.[5][6] In the United Kingdom, the Met Office issued the two red snow warning, meaning a potential risk to life.[7]

The anticyclone, nicknamed 'Harmut' was such an intense high pressure system that it evolved into an anticyclonic storm. A gust of 187 km/h was registered in the Øvre Dividal National Park in Norway, relatively near to the anticyclonic centre.[8] Other hurricane-force gusts delivered by Hartmut were registered across Europe, particularly over Scandinavia and the British Isles. Such hurricane-force anticyclonic storms are not extremely rare, but occur less often than cyclonic storms of similar intensity.

16 weather-related deaths include that of a seven-year-old girl in Looe, Cornwall Thursday 1 March, when she was hit by a car that slid on ice into a bungalow. On Wednesday 28 February, Stephen Cavanagh, 60, died after trying to save his dog from a lake in Welling, South East London. Also on Wednesday, a 46-year-old man died in a crash and a 75-year-old woman was found dead underneath her car in Farsley. A carer from Glasgow died on her way to work and a 52-year-old homeless man was found dead freezing inside his tent. On Tuesday, 27 February, four people died in two separate weather related crashes. A 20-year-old also died after slipping and falling whilst crossing a bridge in Haddington, East Lothian. This followed the death of a man trying to help another driver in the snowy conditions in Bergh Apton, Norfolk who suffered a heart attack. A 70-year-old also died after being rescued from icy cliffs in Torquay.

Storm Emma

See also: 2017–18 European windstorm season § Storm Emma

Storm Emma brought chaos with heavy snow and strong winds to Southern Ireland, South West England and Southern Wales on the 2–3 March 2018 with up to 50cm of snow in some elevated areas.[9] High winds brought disruption to other parts of Great Britain and Ireland.

References

  1. ^ https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5714337/storm-emma-rain-floods-uk-weather-warning-devon-evacuate/
  2. ^ http://www.met.fu-berlin.de/de/wetter/maps/Analyse_20180228.gif
  3. ^ Greenfield, Patrick (26 February 2018). "UK braces for 'beast from the east' as Met Office warns of snow". the Guardian. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  4. ^ Greenfield, Patrick; Rawlinson, Kevin (23 February 2018). "Siberian blast could make southern England colder than the Arctic". the Guardian. Retrieved 28 February 2018. ...Freezing air from Siberia...
  5. ^ Thorne, Peter (26 February 2018). "Q&A: What is causing these severe snow warnings?". the Irish Times. Retrieved 28 February 2018. There have been many worse winters in the past, but not in the last 30 years. Met Éireann have a good compendium of historical events available at www.met.ie. ... Peter Thorne is Professor in Physical Geography (Climate Change) at NUI Maynooth and Director of the Irish Climate Analysis and Research Unit group (Icarus)
  6. ^ LeCouer, Jack (26 February 2018). "Be Ready As Beast Set To Bite". Nova.ie. Retrieved 28 February 2018. Evelyn Cusack from Met Éireann says the winds coming from Siberia will mean it's exceptionally cold, and said it's been more than 30 years since we've seen this kind of weather: "I'm not saying that it's going to be as bad, maybe it'll be worst."
  7. ^ "UK weather: Snow causing widespread travel disruption". BBC News. BBC. 28 February 2018. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
  8. ^ "Messwerte vom 28.02.2018, 07:00 Uhr – Troms". Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  9. ^ "Storm Emma to bring up to 50cm of snow". 2 March 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2018 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
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