The Boxing day gale of 1998

[Weather-history]

The run up to Christmas 1998 had been very unsettled and the day itself was mild and wet. A low pressure system was moving across the Atlantic and deepening as it moved towards the UK, by midnight on the 27th December, it had deepened to 955mb. Along it's southern flank, winds gusted up to over 100mph, 103mph at Prestwick Airport was recorded. The worst hit areas were northern England and Wales, Northern Ireland, southern and central Scotland, where there was structural damage to buildings, trees uprooted and power failures. 5 people died because of the gales.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/1998/...cka19981227.gif

[johnholmes]

following on from the 1997 gale it was certainly a windy couple of years over the Xmas period.

[Dazza]

I remember this event well.

This happened before I moved to NI (I was still living in Somerset at that time). However, we were over visiting the in-laws and we headed out that evening .

Let's just say we were driving along country lanes dodging fallen branches and trying to avoid the branches that were falling as we were driving along.

[Lettucing Gutted]

The Boxing Day 98 Gale was also accompanied by a shallow "heat wave".

According to http://www.personal.dundee.ac.uk/~taharley/1998_weather.htm there was a high of 15 C in the Midlands on Boxing Day 1998 eventhough the 850 HPA temperates were below -2C all over of Britain.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00219981226.gif

Edited June 18, 2007 by Craig Evans

[Thundery wintry showers]

And rather oddly, there was some snow in northern and western areas (from a south-westerly airflow!) overnight 27th/28th, following the storm. Lancaster had 1cm of snow on the morning of the 28th, which is notable for a traditionally non-snowy location.

[Lettucing Gutted]

And rather oddly, there was some snow in northern and western areas (from a south-westerly airflow!) overnight 27th/28th, following the storm. Lancaster had 1cm of snow on the morning of the 28th, which is notable for a traditionally non-snowy location.

That must have been one of the rare occasions when a Returning Maritime Polar airmass really felt polar together with late January 1984 and early March 1995.