THE STORMS IN JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2014
Strictly speaking, we should call this the December 2013-February 2014 storms - the coastline was battered by winds up to Force 12 (Hurricane on the Beaufort Scale: "That which no canvas can withstand"). They started in mid-December, and they wound themselves up over the New Year, and they excelled themselves on St Brigid's Day (1st February).
A combination of deep, deep depressions rushing across the Atlantic and winding themselves into long occluded fronts (the warm and the cold fronts combining: a potent thing in a deep depression because it leads to the fiercest of gusts), together with exceptionally high tides, was what did it.
Our first gallery of photos (ph. Heather Greer, except for the one of Cleggan Harbour flooded, which was taken by an early-rising Shirley Quinn McDonnell) gives a selection of photos of the storms as they were in action around the Aughrus Peninsula. In many cases, the wind was so strong that it actually blew the seas flat, as you will notice with some of the photos. Click on each thumbnail, and to move on, click anywhere on the RHS to move forward or LHS to move back.
And below, in no particular sequence, is a gallery of photos of "after the storm and the high tides". All photos: Heather Greer
Let us just give some info on a few pairs of photos. First, people may recall that there was a granite plaque to a Mary Gordon Burke (born on Omey but died in the US), on a vast granite outcrop, past Pascal's mobile homes, on the sea side. One photo in the gallery shows this plaque - I took that photo in November 2013 - it was fastened by four approx half-inch bolts into the rock. The photo beside it shows it, and "it gone". Second: the B&W photo of the ruin on Omey was taken by me exactly 10 years ago; the one beside it was taken in January 2014. The second chimney has almost gone, and will go soon, I suppose. Third, there's a photo, also taken on Omey, of two concrete beams which lay parallel to one another for years, maybe as the intended supports for a pier or structure; the photo beside it was taken after the early January storm. The power in the waves was truly immense.
