Myth busters: hurricanes in the British Isles?

We often hear that we receive our weather from the US, but does that mean we can get their hurricanes too? Let's take a look...

Our weather in the British Isles often comes from the west, due to our prevailing westerly winds.

When our winds are from this direction it's a maritime airmass, often bringing unsettled weather off of the Atlantic. You can check out the current WindRadar here.

The jet stream also plays an active role in carrying weather systems across the Atlantic, like a conveyor belt.

However, the jet stream’s position in relation to the British Isles can mean these systems may arrive directly to us if it’s directly overhead, or get deflected to the north or south.

The location of other high or low pressure systems along its path can also impact its location.

In short, no, but it’s not quite that straightforward.

Hurricanes, as explained in more detail here, are rotating, tropical storm systems, characterised most notably by sustained strong winds exceeding 75mph and spirals of organised thunderstorms.

They require a few key ingredients to form, with one of the most important being sea surface temperatures above 26.5C.

The waters surrounding the British Isles tend to average in the mid-to-high teens (Celsius) in the summer months, so by definition cannot develop or sustain a tropical system.

We may however see strong mid-latitude storms produce hurricane strength winds, such as in the Great Storm of 1987, or more recently, Storm Eunice from February this year.

What we can also be in receipt of, are the remnants of such storms once they have undergone extratropical transition.

This means that they lose their tropical characteristics as they enter the mid-latitudes with lower sea surface temperatures. They then acquire a new name, as an ex-hurricane, or ex-tropical storm, though they do still retain their original Atlantic storm name too.

Back in 2017 we had the remnants of ex-hurricane Ophelia, ex-tropical storm Gabrielle in 2019 and ex-hurricane Zeta in 2020, to name a few.

As the climate changes and the Earth and its oceans warm, it's not entirely impossible that the northward distance that hurricanes may be able to travel and retain tropical status, could extend.

As it stands however, the British Isles cannot receive hurricanes, or any other storm of tropical status. We'll be on the lookout this summer for any remnants of extratropical systems that may affect us, with climate change certainly increasing the intensity and frequency of these storms.