Reach speeds in some parts of Donegal during the recent Storm Éowyn reached hurricane status.
Met Eireann has confirmed that wind speeds reached hurricane force 12 on the Beaufort wind scale at Malin Head.
Four weather stations across the country broke their highest gust records during the storm on 24 January.
They included Finner which recorded a wind gust of with 150km/h.
According to Met Éireann’s meteorological report for January, Storm Éowyn “went through explosive cyclogenesis as it approached Ireland from the southwest” and “reached peak intensity as it brushed” Ireland’s northwest coast.
January 2025 warmest globally but Ireland below average
Meanwhile, January 2025 was the warmest January globally, according to new data released by the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Globally, the temperature last month was 0.79C above the 1991-2020 average for January.
Ireland, however, bucked the global trend.
According to Met Éireann data, last month was 0.45C below the most recent 1991-2020 long-term average.
Professor Karen Wiltshire, chair of climate science at Trinity College Dublin, explained that variability between a national temperature average and the global one for a given period is expected.
In Ireland, January was a cool month overall, with two major weather events Storm Éowyn and snowfall on the 4-5 January.
Prof Wiltshire said that Storm Éowyn was a “once in a lifetime storm”.
Because it was such a rare event, she says it is not possible to attribute it to the climate crisis.
“It’s impossible to say it had nothing to do with climate change either,” Prof Wiltshire said.
