Hurricane Ophelia will bring Halloween heatwave to Europe as temperatures soar

[Meatpie]

Hurricane Ophelia has become very compact and intense and shocked meterologist around the world. Currently trackiing north very fast and will begin to impact UK on Sunday.

 

[Meatpie]

https://twitter.com/hashtag/HurricaneOphelia?src=hashHurricane Ophelia has shocked the scientific community and defies science as it approaches Category 4.

 

[deaddirty]

This is almost unbelievable - it just shouldn't be happening! A category 4 hurricane off the coast of Europe, if it was a bit further east it would be making landfall on mainland Spain or Portugal! Does this mean that the west coasts of Spain and Portugal are now at risk from Category 4 hurricanes, when so far as I know they have had a hurricane strike in recorded history?
With apologies to any US and other members who may have been badly affected by them, this is actually more scary than hurricanes Irma and Maria - because they were within the normal range of weather events if at the extreme top end, whereas this totally outside the range.

 

[alexonedeath]

The evangelical Christians are positive that this freak hurricane is just another act of an angry God. What they do not seem to understand is that God is angry with THEM.

 

[deaddirty]

Well He had better improve on his steering sharpish, hadn't he - he's aiming it at me at the moment and I'm no evangelical Christian! We don't want Him looking down on the remains of Britain and Ireland on Wednesday, and a thunderous bellow emitting from the sky "Oh shit, I just wiped out the wrong population".

 

[Meatpie]

Hurricane Ophelia weakened to Category 2 storm today still forecast for 100mph winds hitting Ireland remains. The name Ophelia derived from Greek οφελος (ophelos) meaning "help".

 

[Meatpie]

A once-in-a-lifetime weathermap from the MetOffice

 

[deaddirty]

Agreed! As of half an hour ago (10.30 pm here) Ophelia is still a Category 1 hurricane and is expected to downgrade to a Tropical Storm before it hits Ireland about 8-10 am tomorrow morning.
HANG ON - a functioning hurricane is within 12 hours of landfall in Ireland and an official Tropical Storm is expected to hit County Cork? !!!! This isn't meant to happen!
The whole Republic is on red alert - all schools and many businesses closed tomorrow, the army on standby. Northern Ireland is on amber, we are on yellow - gusts up to 70mph expected tomorrow afternoon to Tuesday morning, I've a feeling I may be cancellling a couple of appointments, though that's just below the level at which i'd expect serious damage to kick in. We have mainly slate roofs here - normally an excellent roofing material, lightweight, long-lasting, if one blows off or comes of you just a roofer to nail it back on. But once the wind gets much over 70mph - well, several thousand stone guillotines flying around can be seriously bad for your health! Our houses are all brick or stone, they don't blow away, though the chimneys might in a really bad gale.
In some respects this isn't as dramatic it sounds - even a Category 1 is no more severe than the worst mid-latitude depressions, and fortunately Ophelia is tracking along the western coasts which is precisely where the 'normal' severe gales generally occur, if it was going to hit southern England like the 1987 storm it would be much more damaging. But the mechanism is - if real hurricanes and tropical storms are getting this far north already, global warming really is getting scary!

 

[Meatpie]

Remnants of Hurricane Ophelia have hit the British Isles as forecast.

A woman in her 20s was killed when part of a tree fell on her car in West Waterford in the Republic of Ireland.

About 120,000 homes are without power in the Irish Republic, where the government has deployed the army.

• An amber warning for Northern Ireland, Wales, south west Scotland and the Isle of Man is in force until 23:00 BST.
  
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• Bill Clinton’s visit to Belfast was cancelled because of the storm.
  
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• Waves of up to 27 ft high were recorded at sea as a rare warning for hurricane force 12 winds was issued for shipping areas south of Ireland.
  

 

[Meatpie]

London end of days sky today as Ophelia drags saharan dust over the UK turning the sky deep orange hue.

A woman in her 50s and a man in his 30s have also died in accidents related to ex-Ophelia. The man died in a chainsaw accident in Co Tipperary while attempting to remove a tree downed by the storm.

 

[Meatpie]

The BBC also took this up from twitter

 

[Meatpie]

Tree down on Northbrook Road, Ranelagh

 

[Meatpie]

Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland

 

[Meatpie]

More sahara skies

 

[Meatpie]

A mix of saharan dust and smoke from wildfires in Portugal turned the sky deep orange hue.

 

[Meatpie]

Orange sunset over Sofia, Bulgaria as well this evening

Unusually warm weather for October continues for whole of Europe.

 

[deaddirty]

Now Sauron taking over The Shard is seriously bad news!

"London end of days sky today as Ophelia drags saharan dust over the UK turning the sky deep orange hue."
So that's why! For most of today it was really dark, and the light was a weird bilious yellow-brown - it did feel a bit apocalyptic. At lunchtime the BBC local weather forecaster said people were phoning them and asking why, and they didn't know either. See - they should have logged on to CDG, and Meatpie would have told them!

 

[Meatpie]

Evening DD,

Glad that storm passed quickly without any serious damage and thanks for the updates last couple of days. Unusually warm weather continues here as well.

 

[Meatpie]

Both saharan dust and smoke from massive wildfires in Portugal were advected over the UK today as clearly visible in this satellite image.

 

[Meatpie]

Stunning sunset over Norwich