Documentary analysis of the impacts of the storm ‘Night of the Big Wind’ on the 6 – 7 January 1839 in Ireland and the UK

Extreme windstorms are associated with high wind speeds and are a major source of natural hazard risk with considerable socio-economic impacts. Reported socio-economic impacts include damage to infrastructure, agriculture, forestry, coastal areas, flooding, and loss of lives.  Due to the environmental and socio-economic impacts of extreme windstorms, there is broad interest in understanding the potential impact of climate change on extreme extratropical windstorm activity in the North Atlantic.

One of these severe extratropical windstorms with hurricane-force winds took place on 6 – 7 January 1839, known as ‘Night of the Big Wind’, and is one of the strongest in the instrumental record for Ireland.

Ireland and the UK have a rich heritage of historical documentary (e.g. newspapers, weather diaries) and instrumental meteorological observations, which allows a detailed reconstruction of the impacts of this severe extratropical windstorm. Additionally, a detailed analysis of the documentary sources are important to understand vulnerability, exposure and adaptation to severe extratropical windstorms.

It is crucial to understand how the consequences of this historical windstorm could have been different had it occurred in a warmer present-day and projected warmer climate.

Better knowledge and understanding of such severe historical extratropical windstorms will allow observed trends in windstorms to be put into a longer-term context and improve our understanding of the risks from such events today and in the future in the context of a warmer climate.