Weather in the NEWS

After the Christmas festivities came the storm - a deep depression raced in from the Atlantic to deliver winds of up to 100 mph across Northern Ireland and Scotland on Boxing Day (26th December).

Across Scotland and Northern Ireland, 60,000 people were without electricity and the rooves were torn off a number of houses and blocks of flats. In Glasgow, the spire of a church crashed down through the main building and a number of cars were crushed when part of a hospital wall collapsed.

In the North Sea, 2 RAF helicopters lifted 34 oil workers from the Ramforth Banff platform 90 miles east of Aberdeen after it was damaged in the violent storm force winds (Force 11 - only one step down from Hurricane force).

The chart for 18:00 showed that the frontal systems were now merging to form an occluded front (where the warmer air is lifted above the cold air). This suggested the onset of the mature stage of the depression - the central low would now fill and the wind strength would begin to fall. The UK Met. Office issued a further warning to shipping at 00:15 on 27th December:

THE GENERAL SYNOPSIS AT 1800
INTENSE LOW NORTH MALIN 946 EXPECTED SOUTHERN NORWAY 974 BY 1800 SUNDAY.

THE AREA FORECASTS FOR THE NEXT 24 HOURS

FORTIES CROMARTY
SOUTHWEST GALE 8 TO STORM 10, OCCASIONALLY VIOLENT STORM 11 IN FORTIES, BACKING SOUTHEAST 4 OR 5 LATER. SQUALLY SHOWERS. MODERATE

FORTH TYNE DOGGER FISHER GERMAN BIGHT HUMBER
SOUTHWESTERLY SEVERE GALE 9 TO VIOLENT STORM 11, BACKING SOUTHEASTERLY 4 OR 5 THEN VEERING SOUTHWESTERLY 6 TO GALE 8. RAIN OR SQUALLY SHOWERS. MAINLY MODERATE
 

The shipping report showed that the forecasters were now expecting the depression to fill as it moved across the North Sea. However, the pressure reading of 946 hPa was intensely low and there were still expectations of high winds for a few hours to come. The 18:00 chart shows the tight packed isobars and the front over the Forties region of the North Sea - the forecast for this area was for violent storm force winds (Force 11) - which resulted in damage to North Sea oil rigs. This was a huge atmospheric disturbance - as can be clearly seen in the Meteosat image of Europe taken in visible light at 12:00 (mid-day) on 26th December. The tight central 'eye' and swirling clouds of the depression are easily visible - but look at the extent and length of the huge mass of frontal clouds sweeping aross most of north west Europe and the Bay of Biscay and back into the Atlantic.

The NOAA image (above) is a false colour composite that has been created by merging three separate black and white images. The NOAA spacecraft takes a series of images as it passes overhead - in the visible and thermal infra-red bands. Each band is received as a black and white image with varying levels of grey. To make the colour composite, three image bands were collected - in visible light, near infra-red (just at the red end of the visible spectrum) and infra-red. The visible light band is shown in blue light, the near infra red in green and the thermal infra red in red. When merged together this gives an illusion of true colour with green land and blue sea. However, this image looks a little odd as the top right appears red - this is because this area was dark when the satellite was overhead and only the thermal band was able to record any data - which is displayed in red.

As British attention on Boxing Day was focussing on the winter storm, a summer cyclone was devastating the annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race. Starting from Sydney, Australia, on Boxing Day, the race is for large ocean going yachts covering some 630 miles of offshore waters to Hobart, Tasmania.

MELBOURNE GALE WARNING ISSUED 1700UTC - COMPLEX LOW WITH MAIN CENTRE 983HPA NEAR 40S155E MOVING EAST/SOUTHEAST 10/15 KNOTS. AREA AFFECTED WITHIN 300NM OF LOW CENTRE.

WITHIN 400NM OF LOW, CLOCKWISE WIND AROUND LOW 20/30KNOTS INCREASING TO 30/40KNOTS IN GALE AREAS. ROUGH SEA RISING VERY ROUGH/HIGH IN GALE AREAS. MODERATE SWELL RISING TO HEAVY IN GALE AREAS.
 

This storm was not as intensely low as the storm battering the UK at the same time - but it produced conditions that were described as 'extreme' and amongst the worst in living memory as winds gusted to 80 knots and waves rose to 6 metres in height. Many yachts were dismasted and severely damaged and the mid-summer race turned into a desperate battle for survival at sea. Australian navy helicopters were launched to rescue crews from damaged yachts and ships headed into the race area to search for yachts and survivors. The rescue operation became the biggest ocean rescue operation in Australian yachting history. Fears for the safety of some yachts were raised when they could not be contacted - possibly having lost all radio communications when their masts were destroyed. An 'SOS' was received from the 53 year old yacht 'Winston Churchill', but rescuers were initially unable to locate the yacht or her crew. Seven members of her crew were found and rescued on December 28th - but a further two were still missing. Hopes of finding these two survivors alive faded after they had been adrift for more than 24 hours. British Olympic yachtsman, Glyn Charles, was missing feared drowned after he was washed overboard from the yacht 'Sword of Orion'. Two members of the crew of 'Business Post Naiad' died when the yacht was caught in the heavy seas. Six competitors were reported dead or missing - the highest number of fatalities in the history of the race.

There is NO truth in the rumour that water swirls out of a bath plug in an anticlockise direction in the northern hemisphere and a clockwise direction in the southern - try it and see. You can probably change the direction yourself!

Branson balloon challenge forced to ditch in Pacific

After taking off from Marrakesh in North Africa, the balloon had completed over half of the intended circum-navigation of the globe - passing Iraq, over the Himalayas and across China. Until Christmas, it looked as if this attempt to fly around the world might succeed - the craft was well on track and on time for a landing in Britain on 27th December. But, low pressure across the Pacific meant that winds were pushing the balloon backwards rather than allowing the forward track to the USA. With the prospect of fuel running out, the decision was taken to try to put the balloon down as close to land as possible. Richard Branson sent this message from the balloon:

"As of yesterday (24th December) our forecast track was a landing in England in three days - 27th December - such were the strengths of the winds. However, I'm sorry that it's now all over - we raced across the Pacific in winds of up to 200 mph but ended up hitting a solid trough from one end to the other. It has been like hitting up against a solid brick wall. All day and all night we battled to get through it. Our weather team say that it will take us a week to get through if we're lucky, but by the end of the week we would more likely end up in the Pacific anyway.

The only land this side of the trough is the Hawaiian Islands. We are attempting to fly to them and we'll be asking for their help to try and land the balloon there today - Christmas Day.

We are sorry to have let you down. We've had a fascinating journey and will now aim to try and be back with our family and friends for the rest of Christmas. Happy Christmas everyone."
 
The balloon had made use of high altitude jetstreams - very high speed winds swirling around the globe at speeds in excess of 150 mph. The intention was to lift the balloon up and into the jetstream region, allowing the fast air currents to carry the balloon right around the world. The balloon can only go where the wind carries it, so steering is a matter of raising or lowering the balloon to take advantage of winds blowing in different directions at different levels. Look for the gap in the clouds to the north of Hawaii that indicates the position of the trough region (low pressure area), across the intended track of the balloon.

The balloon ditched into the sea and skidded across the waves for some 10 miles before finally coming to a stop. The three man crew were rescued by US Coastguard helicopters from Hawaii.

Statistical returns for 1998 suggest that it has been the warmest year on record - taken as an average across the world. The average global temperature was 0.6°C above the standard value. The El Niño event may have added to the average temperature rise - forecasters are now suggesting that 1999 may well be slightly cooler as El Niño has now changed to the opposite situation - La Niña.

Across Britain the early months of 1998, generally when we might expect the worst winter conditions, were milder than normal. Heavy rain fell at Easter with substantial flooding in the Severn valley and Midlands. Late Spring was very warm but June turned out to be almost the wettest June this century! The rain returned again in autumn with more severe flooding in the Severn, Wye and Usk valley region. The first snows of winter fell as far south as the Peak District of Derbyshire in mid-October. November was cold but a cold period before Christmas gave way to milder weather, dashing the hopes of those who had bet on a white Christmas. The end of the year saw a series of storms sweeping across the UK, disrupting power supplies and damaging buildings.

1998 was the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record with, at one time on September 25th, 4 active hurricanes being tracked at the same time. This was an event never before recorded.