Hurricane Ophelia turns skies orange

On this day, seven years ago, the skies turned orange as ex-Hurricane Ophelia barrelled across the UK and Ireland.

Ex-Hurricane Ophelia, named by the US National Hurricane Center, brought exceptionally strong gusts of up to 90 mph to the British Isles on October 16th to 17th 2017.

The highest recorded wind gusts were 97 mph at Roches Point, Ireland, and 90 mph at both Aberdaron and Capel Curig respectively, in the UK.

The Republic of Ireland experienced the worst of the impacts, with three fatalities as a result of falling trees.

Power cuts also affected thousands of homes across Wales and Northern Ireland, with damage also to a stadium roof in Cumbria.

When storms occur in early autumn, they are still mostly in full leaf. The fuller trees provide a larger surface area, acting as a shield and obstacle to the wind, rather than allowing the wind to smoothly flow through the bare canopies.

This is why autumn storms, rather than winter storms can often produce greater damage.

Ophelia also caused the skies to turn orange across southern England, owing to the large amounts of Sahara dust, and also wildfire smoke from Portugal, that it had drawn up in its path.