LONDON (AP) 鈥 Millions of people in Ireland and northern parts of the U.K. were urged to stay at home Friday as hurricane-force winds disabled power networks and brought widespread travel disruptions.
Forecasters issued a rare 鈥渞ed鈥 weather warning, meaning danger to life, across the whole island of Ireland and central and southwest Scotland.
Ireland was hit with wind gusts of 114 miles (183 kilometers) an hour overnight, the strongest since World War II, as spiraled in from the Atlantic before hitting Scotland.
Schools were closed, and trains, ferries and hundreds of flights were canceled in the Republic of Ireland, neighboring Northern Ireland and Scotland as the system, named Storn 脡owyn by weather authorities, roared in. The storm was moving fast, though, and should have cleared Scotland's shores by late Friday.
City centers, such as Dublin in Ireland, Belfast in Northern Ireland and Glasgow in Scotland were eerily quiet, much like the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic as shops stayed close and people heeded the advice to not venture out. For those hose that have left home and were caught in one of the wind gusts, it was a struggle to stay upright.
鈥淧lease just stay at home if you can,鈥 Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O鈥橬eill said on BBC Radio Ulster. 鈥淲e鈥檙e in the eye of the storm now. We are in the period of the red alert.鈥
The Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh shut its doors and Scottish First Minister John Swinney said: 鈥淲e have to be clear. People should not travel.鈥
More than 700,000 homes and businesses in Ireland and almost 100,000 in Northern Ireland were without power due to 鈥渦nprecedented, widespread and extensive鈥 damage to electricity infrastructure, the Irish Electricity Supply Board said.
Ireland鈥檚 weather office, Met Eireann, said the 114 mile an hour gusts were recorded at Mace Head on the west coast, beating a record of 113 miles (182 kilometers) an hour set in 1945. The Met Office said
Wind speeds in Scotland were expected to be slightly lower through the day, though historically high, and authorities urged people to remain vigilant, especially in coastal areas.
Part of the storm鈥檚 energy originated with the system that brought , said Jason Nicholls, lead international forecaster at the private weather company AccuWeather.
The storm is being propelled by the jet stream and is being fed by energy in upper levels of the atmosphere. A rapid drop in air pressure is expected and could make 脡owyn a , which happens when a storm鈥檚 pressure drops 24 millibars in 24 hours.
Scientists say pinpointing the exact influence of on a storm is challenging, but all storms are happening in an atmosphere that is warming abnormally fast due to human-released pollutants like carbon dioxide and methane.
鈥淎s the climate gets warmer, we can expect these storms to become even more intense, with greater damages,鈥 said Hayley Fowler, a professor of climate change impacts at Newcastle University.
