Residents of the European part of Russia are warned about the impact of a supercyclone. Storm Eunice will hit the regions of our country in the next 24 hours. Which areas will be the first to be hit by Eunice’s ice rink? And why, in fact, is it called a supercyclone?
“Eunice” is not the last whirlwind of the week. In the next few days, a whole series of Atlantic cyclones will sweep across Europe. Whirlwinds rush one after another. “Ilenia” has died down, and “Eunice” is already in a hurry to replace it. We remind you that if a cyclone gets its own name, then big troubles are expected from it.
And the trouble has already begun! Footage from the UK: like a paper boat, a huge sea ferry sways on the waves, hitting the side of the coastal infrastructure. And the drivers of the cars, which, apparently, should have been loaded onto it, are watching the terrible picture from the side. And that was just the beginning of the storm!
Under the admiring cries of the British “Eunice” fells mighty trees. The wind in the British Isles began to intensify early in the morning. And by noon everything had already grown into a full-fledged hurricane. One of the weather stations in the south of the country recorded wind gusts of up to 54 meters per second, others have 34, 40 or more. Similar values are recorded at coastal weather stations in France and Germany.
Already tens of thousands of people without electricity, people are advised not to leave their homes without need. Welsh meteorologists even announced that the cyclone, according to their calculations, is generally the strongest in the history of meteorological observations in the country.
Several videos from London Heathrow Airport. It is worth paying tribute to the professionalism of the crews, who even in such conditions tried to land, and the desperation of the ground services, which, in such a wind, gave the green light to the sides to descend.
Cyclone Ilenia was the first in a series of Atlantic vortices.. On February 16, it raged in the countries of the Old World, became the cause of storm winds in the Kaliningrad region. Today its center is over Karelia, and the entire Russian Plain falls into circulation. “Ilenia” is gradually losing strength and fills up, gradually shifting to the northeast. However, it will be replaced very quickly by the whirlwind that today is ruffling the British Isles. This is a very active vortex, from which British forecasters expect “significant destruction and flooding.”
Moreover, British meteorologists do not exclude that this will be the strongest storm in the last 30 years. A special sign of the cyclone “Eunice” can be a phenomenon called sting jet – loosely translated “stinging wind” or “stream”. We are talking about a powerful stream of very dry cold and dense air that falls to the ground from a height of 3-4 kilometers behind the cold front of the cyclone. The speed of such a stream can exceed 45 meters per second, which corresponds to the category of “strong hurricane”.
Stinging winds hit the ground in a narrow strip, about 30 kilometers. On satellite images, these zones have characteristic features: just today in the south of Britain there is a hook-shaped cloud outlined by a dark strip of dry air with a dot at the end, like the sting of a scorpion’s tail, hence the name.
Cyclone Eunice is rapidly moving east. It will take him only 12 hours to get to the Kaliningrad region. At this time, the cyclone will gradually fill up, that is, lose strength. In addition, the center of the cyclone will pass through Kaliningrad, which means that the region will not fall into the zone of maximum pressure gradients: the wind will not be hurricane, but it will be stormy.
The most difficult period for Kaliningrad will be the period from 6 am to 6 pm Saturday, February 18. Wind speed with gusts will reach 25-27 meters per second. On Sunday night, the weather will begin to calm down – the storm will stop, but at least until Tuesday, February 21, the wind will remain strong and potentially dangerous: gusts up to 15 meters per second are likely.
In St. Petersburg, Eunice’s influence will be much less pronounced. Its fronts will approach the banks of the Neva on Sunday, but the maximum gusts are expected to be at the level of 12 meters per second – this is a normal spring day for the Northern capital. True, the invasion of the vortex will lead to a cooling: the thaws will recede, and in the middle of next week it will already be minus 2-3 degrees.
It’s raining in Moscow today, plus 4 degrees, moderate wind. At night it will get colder to zero degrees, the precipitation will continue in the form of snow and rain, so that in the morning icy conditions are possible on the roads.
Tomorrow, February 18, plus 3 degrees in the Russian capital, light rain, wind will increase to 15 meters per second. Sunday afternoon – plus 2 degrees, light rain, wind up to 12 meters per second.
By the middle of next week the weather in Moscow will be dampcloudy and monotonous: plus in the daytime, light rain, moderate wind.
Europe during this period will meet with two more cyclones. Rains in the center of Russia will be only their distant echoes.