September 2006 -ex hurricane Gordon

Hurricane Gordon lay over the Azores at 00Z on the 20th http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/2006/brack/bracka20060920.gif and then by 00Z on the 21st its remnants were located at about 15 degrees west, west of Lisbon, 990mb and then it moved north and deepened again, so that by midday on the 21st the deep low was located over SW Ireland, with gales in the SW approaches and through the Western Channel. Slow moving fronts were located over Scotland and showery troughs moved NE across England and Wales. By 00Z on the 22nd it was 974mb just off NW Ireland http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/2006/brack/bracka20060922.gif and a slow moving frontal system over France moving N-NE towards the UK promised to bring another wet period across much of England and Wales on the 22nd.

There were plenty of showers and a few thunderstorms during the afternoon with local flash flooding in places. WV imagery indicated that vorticity advection forcing was present with the strongest bands of wet weather across CS England and especially across the West Midlands and NW England. Showers were generated inland but eventually died out as the next system moved to the SW UK. There were gusts to 69kt at South Uist (Western Isles) and also some widespread power failures across Northern Ireland. There were also strong winds in the far SW with 60kt being recorded at St Mary's on the Isles of Scilly. Falmouth reported a mean wind at 18Z of 60kt at Pendennis Castle - a very exposed spot in a S-SWly. Offshore there was a gust of 70knots at the Seven Stones lightship at 18Z, just over 80 mph.

Ireland was badly affected in particular. Electricity crews worked flat out to restore supply to about 40,000 homes around Wexford, Kildare, Longford, Mullingar in Co Westmeath and north Dublin. Parts of Bray in Co Wicklow and Shankill in south Dublin were also affected. Train services were suspended for a time around Dublin and roads in Kildare and Galway were blocked by fallen trees. There was also severe flooding in Cavan and Monaghan as a result of heavy rainfall. Premises near Castleblayney were affected with more serious flooding reported in the Clones and Ballybay areas of Co Monaghan with many areas of farmland under water .

In N Ireland around Ballymena many trees were down as commutters described driving along the motorway littered with bits of tree and branches everywhere In the north Malin Head reported a gust of 83mph.

In the SW of England rail services were hit with damage to train tracks at Dawlish in Devon. In Cornwall, trees fell and some boats on the Fal estuary broke away from moorings in southerly winds. More than 1,000 homes were affected in Truro after problems were caused by electricity circuit malfunctions.

Nevertheless, many areas further east were very sunny and warm in the strong S-SW'ly flow and Sutton Bonington (Notts) recorded a maximum temperature of 29.0C, the highest temperature ever recorded on the 22nd Sept - such storms can have a brighter side.