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Stormiest winter on record for Ireland and UK

Nature Climate Change volume 4, pages 738–740 (2014)Cite this article

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To the Editor —

Meteorological agencies of Ireland and the UK have confirmed that winter (December to February) 2013–2014 (W2013–14) set records for precipitation totals and the occurrence of extreme wind speeds1,2,3. Less clear is whether storminess (characterized as the frequency and intensity of cyclones) during W2013–14 was equally unprecedented. We assessed multidecadal variations in storminess by considering frequency and intensity together and found that in the context of these large-scale cyclone characteristics, W2013–14 was indeed exceptional. Given the potential societal impacts, there is clearly a need to better understand the processes driving extreme cyclonic activity in the North Atlantic.

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Figure 1: Domains analysed and NCEP1 cyclone metrics.
Figure 2: Extended cyclone metrics from the 20CR dataset.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Irish Climate Analysis and Research Units (ICARUS), National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland

    Tom Matthews, Conor Murphy & Shaun Harrigan

  2. Department of Geography, Centre for Hydrological and Ecosystem Science, Loughborough University, Loughborough, LE11 3TU, UK

    Robert L. Wilby

Authors
  1. Tom Matthews
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  2. Conor Murphy
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  3. Robert L. Wilby
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  4. Shaun Harrigan
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Correspondence to Tom Matthews.

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Matthews, T., Murphy, C., Wilby, R. et al. Stormiest winter on record for Ireland and UK. Nature Clim Change 4, 738–740 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2336

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