Storm Éowyn Leaves Thousands Without Power, Grounds Flights

(Bloomberg) -- Hurricane-strength winds battered Ireland and the UK early Friday morning, leaving thousands of homes and businesses without power and disrupting transportation across the region.

Winter Storm Éowyn brought record gusts of 183 kilometers (114 miles) per hour in Galway in the west of Ireland, according to the Irish meteorological service Met Eireann. ESB, the state-owned energy utility, said that as of 8am local time, 715,000 homes, farms and businesses were without power.

As the storm approached, authorities across Ireland, Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland issued red-level weather alerts, closing schools and universities and telling people to shelter in place. Many businesses have shut, and public transport networks have come to a halt.

Hundreds of flights have been canceled at airports in Ireland and the UK. Many have been grounded at Dublin, Edinburghand Belfast airports, with dozens of transatlantic services into London’s Heathrow also canceled. Aer Lingus Group, British Airways and Ryanair Holdings Plc have all warned of more potential disruptions.

Trains were canceled across Ireland and Northern Ireland, and most rail routes between England and Scotland were suspended on Friday. Train services across much of the north of England are at a complete stop. Even in the south, trains are disrupted, with Southern and South Western services running at much slower speeds on some routes, which could disrupt some commuter services into London.

The UK Met Office issued amber warnings for parts of England and Wales, saying that there is a risk of power cuts and travel disruption. London was under a yellow warning, with gusts up to 50 miles per hour predicted.

Brittany, in northern France, was also placed under an amber warning.

Irish power prices for the morning peak reached €355 per megawatt-hour, according to data from Ireland’s SEMO exchange, the highest since 2022. High winds usually boost wind power generation, pushing down electricity prices, but when winds get too strong, turbines have to be taken out of service. Data from EirGrid shows that generation is down to about 25% of previous forecasts. UK wind generation is 25% lower than initial forecasts, according to data from Elexon.

Éowyn was amplified by a wave of Arctic air that cut through the US and brought blizzard conditions to typically snow-less portions of the American South earlier this week. That weather system supercharged the jet stream and primed Éowyn into a “weather bomb” armed with destructive winds.

(Updates number of homes, farms and businesses without power in second paragraph.)

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