8 Dec 1886 - Britain's Lowest Pressure In Modern Times?

[Roger J Smith]

Here's a question for Mr Data and others.

Somewhere deep in the archives, is there a story on the extremely low pressure evidently sub-930 mb, recorded on December 8th of 1886, as this storm pushed across Donegal and Northern Ireland on its way to the North Sea the next day with a pressure still below 950 mbs?

And what were the news stories generated by this intense low. It must have had some ferocious winds across Ireland and Wales, central England and perhaps other parts of the U.K. as well.

The map below is from wetterzentrale. I discovered that these older maps (before 1950) are 12z maps. At least when they get to 1949 they are, I found that by comparing them to the 1948-present maps (00z) and noticing that the examples I checked are all obviously 12z in between two of the maps in the modern set.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/...slp18861208.gif

So this must be 12z of 8 Dec. 1886 ... the same date as the Defoe storm would have been in the modern calendar (it was of course on 27 Nov in the Julian calendar being used in 1703).

If you haven't looked into this before, Mr Data, perhaps you could look into the Times and your other sources and see what they have to say about this storm.

(day after)

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/...slp18861209.gif

(day before)

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/...slp18861207.gif

Edited January 22, 2009 by Roger J Smith

[Roger J Smith]

Calling Mr Data ... we need some info on this storm.

[Weather-history]

Calling Mr Data ... we need some info on this storm.

I wrote an article on the January 1884 storm which was actually the lowest pressure recorded in the UK.

Included is the December 1886 storm

http://www.netweather.tv/forum/index.php?s...934&hl=1886

[Coast]

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pres...ordlow1986.html

SOME OTHER LOW PRESSURE READINGS

1979 870.0 mb Typhoon 'Tip' (16° 44' N. 137° 46' E)

1958 877.0 mb Typhoon 'Ida' (19° N, 135° E)

1927 886.0 mb Ship Sapoeroea (east of Luzon)

1870 921.1 mb Ship Neier (49° N, 26° W)

1929 925.5 mb Ship H.M.S Tarifa (51° N, 24° W)

1884 925.6 mb Ochtertyre (lowest pressure on record for the UK)

1886 927.2 mb Belfast

1962 931.1 mb Ocean Weather Station 'Lima' (56° N, 19° W)

1983 936.0 mb South-east Greenland

[Roger J Smith]

Thanks Mr Data, I remembered the other thread vaguely but what are the odds having two lows that deep in the space of three winters?

By comparison, the lowest pressure in the past two centuries in the Great Lakes region was probably the 954 mbs recorded near the south end of Lake Huron on 26 Jan 1978, in a storm that generated sustained 80 mph winds in nearby St Thomas and Ridgetown ON (from the SSW). I think the lowest pressure on the west coast here is around 940 mbs, but I haven't seen anything much under 950 mbs in my brief experience; outside of hurricanes I have never seen a low in North America deeper than the Jan 1978 low personally in my forty years of watching the weather. There was a similar pressure at Toronto on 2 Jan 1870, according to old records. Wonder if that was connected to one of the storms mentioned in the North Atlantic?

Now, who can show a map with the highest pressure in Europe? I am aware of a 1065 mb high in Jan 1940, I believe it was. Anything higher than that? Over here, we are about to give the record a test, the 24h progs are showing 1066 mbs in the Northwest Territories by 00z Saturday.

[Weather-history]

?

Now, who can show a map with the highest pressure in Europe? I am aware of a 1065 mb high in Jan 1940, I believe it was. Anything higher than that? Over here, we are about to give the record a test, the 24h progs are showing 1066 mbs in the Northwest Territories by 00z Saturday.

During the second half of January 1907, an intense high pressure over NE Europe developed and moved SW centred around the Baltic states on the 23rd January. The barometic reading for Riga that day was a very high 1067mb. A ridge from the intense anticyclone pushed westwards across the UK and along its southern flank, a very cold airstream affected the central and southern parts of the Europe and into the UK.