The storm lashed France’s northwestern coast overnight, ripping out trees, unleashing severe winds — with gusts of about 120 mph registered in parts of Brittany — and leaving some 1.2 million homes without power, according to the country’s energy minister.
Reuters and the Associated Press reported that the storm killed at least five people in France, Spain, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, all from falling trees.
Scenes from social media in northwest France and southern England showed areas of heavy damage, including toppled trees, parts of roofs peeled off and capsized boats. Jersey and Guernsey islands, two British Crown dependencies in the English Channel near northern France, clocked gusts of 80 to 90 mph and were particularly hard hit.
Britain’s coast guard urged people to “stay away from the water’s edge,” after the U.K. Met Office warned that the storm could pose a “danger to life” and said winds could exceed 85 mph in some coastal areas of southern England.
U.K. rail networks announced disruptions to service, and the Port of Dover said it had suspended sailings early Thursday. National Grid, Britain’s electricity operator, reported 9,000 properties without power Thursday afternoon across southern England and Wales and said that Cornwall had the most outages.
Meteo France, the country’s forecasting agency, reported several record gusts ranging from 86 mph to 106 mph. The agency noted another potential record gust of 120 mph in Plougonvelin, but qualified it due to the short period of record there and the height of the measurement.
The Met Office announced records for lowest pressure observed in England and Wales during November, while the center of the storm passed directly over London. Typically, the lower the pressure, the stronger the storm.
A reported pressure reading of 950.5 millibars near Fowey, a port town in Cornwall, would make Ciarán one of southern England’s strongest storms on record if confirmed. The storm’s pressure was equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane.
While the storm hit France and Britain particularly hard, its southern fringe is also expected to affect Spain, Portugal and other parts of southern and central Europe.
The worst of the storm appeared to have passed northwestern France by Thursday as warnings were lowered, after Meteo France had issued red alerts — the highest tier — for three of the country’s 101 regional government areas known as departments. The agency said strong winds and waves continue and were gradually shifting north Thursday. In southern England and Wales, “the worst of the weather is now easing,” the Met Office said in a Thursday afternoon video update.
A second very strong storm — only slightly less intense than Ciarán — was expected to bring another bout of intense winds and period of rain to western France this weekend. The impacts were expected to be less intense in Britain with “another wet and breezy spell, but nothing compared to what we’ve seen over the last few days,” the Met Office said.
Ciarán’s origins can be traced to a strong cold front that just swept across the eastern United States and to a zone of low pressure forming along it east of New England.
Much of the damage in northwest France and English Channel stemmed from a “sting jet” — a narrow but extremely intense corridor of winds that descends on the south side of a low pressure system. Cool, sinking air behind a decaying, fragmenting cold front is blown over a slot of dry air; moisture in the “cold conveyor belt” dries, causing additional evaporative cooling, which causes air to sink. That drags momentum to the surface in the form of wind gusts topping 100 mph.
Beg Melen in far northwest France reported gusts near or above 100 mph for five consecutive hours. Multiple locations in this region posted gusts over 90 mph, including Ouessant (115 mph), Pointe du Raz (106 mph), Brest (99 mph), Lanveoc-Poulmic (97 mph) and Quimper (91 mph).
A wave height of nearly 70 feet was recorded by a buoy off the coast of western France.
A station in the east-central English Channel gusted to 125 mph. In southern England, gusts of 70 mph were common in Cornwall. An apparent tornado and large hail also hit Jersey, where videos posted on social media showed cars covered in debris and damaged roofs.
Sting jets rose to prominence after the Great Storm of 1987, when Britain and France recorded gusts up to 135 mph. Twenty-two people died then and $6 billion in damage resulted. Experts later discovered the mechanisms behind sting jets, which previously hadn’t been known to exist.
Meteo France said that Ciaran was the most severe storm in Brittany since the 1987 storm and even more intense in the north of Finistère and along the Côtes d’Armor coastline — both areas of far northwest France.
Stillman and Cappucci reported from Washington. Jason Samenow in Washington contributed to this report.
