22-04-2025
Ireland's west coast had 'near miss' from devastating floods during Storm Éowyn, scientists found
Parts of Ireland's west coast had an 'unfathomable near miss' when Storm Éowyn hit in January, as tens of thousands narrowly avoided devastating flooding, new research has found.
Furthermore, climate change will likely bring 'devastating floods' into the future as such events become more frequent.
A team at the University of Galway said the storm generated the highest storm surges ever recorded at key locations on the western seaboard.
If it had struck even a week earlier during the high water spring tide, water levels would have been far higher in places like Galway Port, Limerick Dock and Shannon Airport.
'In spite of how devastating Storm Éowyn was, in an odd way, we were incredibly lucky,' said University of Galway's Dr Niall Madden.
'The worst of the storm surge coincided with a low and ebbing tide. Had it hit just a few hours earlier, on a full or flooding tide, Galway could have been dealing with a double disaster of record high winds and record high flooding.'
In late January, Storm Éowyn brought widespread disruption to Ireland. Met Éireann issued red alert warnings across much of the country, with fallen power lines and fallen trees a particular widespread hazard.
In its wake, it left hundreds of thousands of people without power and water, with some households left without electricity for weeks.
The team at Galway's School of Engineering analysed the sea level information from 47 separate datasets.
They found Storm Éowyn to have brought 'unprecedented power' as it surged, more than 2.5m above the normal predicted tidal water level.
It also saw record breaking winds with a gust of 184km/h recorded, along with the highest 10-minute wind speed reaching 142km/h at Mace Head Atmospheric Research Station in Galway.
However, despite its severity in other ways, the timing of the tides during the storm meant there were little to no flooding impacts.
The research team highlighted data from three coastal locations to show how the impact could have been much worse.
At Galway Port, the storm surge peaked at 2.60m above the normal predicted tide, the highest ever recorded since the station started operating in 2007. In Limerick, the highest surge along the western coastline was recorded at almost 3m above tidal level.
And, at Shannon Airport, the tidal gauge saw a surge of 2.70m.
If these surges had occurred a week earlier, these areas could have faced severe flooding due to the high tides, the researchers said.
Dr Indiana Olbert, from University of Galway's School of Engineering, said climate change would drive even more extreme rainfall and generate more intense flooding going forward.
'The data we have recovered from the hours around Storm Éowyn shows just how narrowly tens of thousands of people avoided tidal inundation and threats to cities, towns and coastal communities," she said.
"It is hard to imagine how narrowly we avoided unprecedented storm surge flooding and an inundation, in particular in towns and cities.'
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