That's All for Now. Or is it?

As Cornwall basks in some summery sunshine and clean lines of swell arrive over a brushed blue sea, the ravages of the recent storms and the wettest winter in recorded history start to fade into distant memory.  Hope is high that the winter has ended, and a constant stream of perfect swell over a warm hazy spring will precede a barbeque summer.

Sunshine and Clean Swell

Potentially then, this blog may have nothing more to report this winter, no more storms to watch, no more giant waves to record -perhaps the blog doors should be closed until next winter?  But first, I thought I'd do a recap from the stormiest season I can remember, one where 20 unique hurricane force wind storms hit the Atlantic during the months of January and February, 2014.
 

Hurricane force winds create large waves

These are some of the pictures that hit the local and national papers over the winter

Porthleven taking a hit from Hercules

Fourteen of those 'bombed', low centers that underwent "bombogenesis" or "rapid intensification". As a reminder, "rapid intensification" is defined as when the central pressure of the low center decreases by at least 24 hPa during a consecutive 24 hour period. Eight of these lows had a central pressure below 950 hPa.

Sennen meets Brigid

*****  Warning : more techy info below  ***** from the NOAA Ocean Prediction Center

The totals for the cold weather months from late 2013 into 2014 are equally impressive. The first hurricane force event occurred on October 25th, 2013, and the most recent event just happened on March 8th, 2014. Between those two dates, there have been 43 unique hurricane force events, and 30 of those were associated with low pressure centers that underwent rapid intensification. In addition, there were 16 low centers that had a central pressure below 950 hPa. The most intense system occurred on December 24th, 2013, and the central pressure of the low was analyzed at 929 hPa at both 06Z and 18Z just northwest and north of the British Isles.

Hurricane Force wind generating system

In comparison, the totals for the cold weather months from late 2012 into early 2013 are a bit lower. The first hurricane force event occurred on October 10, 2012, and there were 41 total unique events (compared with 43 for this winter up to this point). 22 of those were associated with low pressure centers that underwent rapid intensification (8 fewer than this winter thus far). 

Between Christmas and New Year

There were 7 low centers that had a central pressure below 950 hPa (9 fewer than this winter thus far). The most intense system from last winter occurred on January 26th, 2013, and the central pressure of the low was analyzed at 930 hPa at 12Z (compared with 929 hPa this winter).

***********  End of Techy Type Stuff ********************** 

The results of these systems hitting land is what we've seen in all the papers for the last three months.

Flooding

Changing Landscape

Storm Damage (now repaired)

Live aboard boat home smashed

  A majority of the systems from last winter occurred near Greenland, but many this year took a track through the eastern Atlantic near the British Isles.

Portreath

Longships

 The final hurricane force system during last year's cold weather months occurred on April 19th, 2013, so even now, it would not be surprising to see a few more hurricane force events this year!

Windsurfer during the Red Bull Storm Chase

Penzance

Harbour at Penzance

Mousehole in the sun

It's been an interesting and busy winter from a Storm Watcher's point of view.  There are a couple of great programs about the storms on Channel 4 - The Storms that Stole Christmas and The Floods that Foiled New Year  .

I make a brief appearance in the second one, around the twenty minute mark, frothing about how big the waves were at Godrevy during the Red Bull Storm Chase.

 

While we now have to repair our coastline and protect against future storms of this nature, as well as sea level rise, there is still the possibility of our unsettled global weather system spinning up some more storms. That's all for now, but keep checking back!