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What is the ‘sting jet’ phenomena driving Storm Eowyn’s UK climate rampage

Storm Eowyn is sending blistering winds through the UK, including the ‘fastest since records began’ of 114 mph measured in Ireland according to forecaster Met Eireann

people windy
Storm Eowyn has engulfed the UK (file)(Image: Katielee Arrowsmith / SWNS)

With Storm Eowyn’s ferocious winds currently battering parts of the UK, the term “sting jet” is getting bandied about to describe a scary meteorological phenomenon.

A wind speed of 114mph has been measured in Ireland, the fastest since records began, forecaster Met Eireann said. Millions of Brits have been warned to stay indoors as life-threatening 100mph winds are set to cause chaos across the UK. The highest level red warning for wind has been issued in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland from the early hours of Friday morning, and it has now been extended to parts of Scotland.

Trains, flights and ferries have been cancelled due to the rare red weather warnings in place on Friday in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The storm is expected to damage buildings, uproot trees and lead to power cuts, according to alerts from the Met Office. But just what is this ‘sting jet’, the driving force behind the chaos?

Collapsed scaffolding after windy chaos in Dublin
Collapsed scaffolding after windy chaos in Dublin(Image: Dublin Fire Brigade/PA)

It’s only been a term since 1987 since the Great Storm battered Sussex with 120mph gusts. They’re essentially narrow corridors of extreme winds that form in nontropical low-pressure systems like the UK’s. Most commonly seen over oceans, they can sometimes swing over land and they cause chaos when they do.

How do sting jets form?

They start when strong winds blow clouds into low-pressure system’s dry slot, the bit of dry air swept into circulation. When the moisture in the clouds evaporate, the dry air is so dense – think of a cloud’s version of a raisin – that it sinks, taking the strong air to the ground with it.

Sting jets are very common after tropical storms and hurricanes when they undergo “extratropical transition”.

Residents in Ireland took the battering first
Residents in Ireland took the battering first (Image: PA)

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What do they look like?

On a satellite, the sting jets look like creepy tendril-like fingers at the tip of the system. In reality, think fallen trees, train delays and a completely ruined garden furniture setup.

What the Met Office says

The national climate and weather service wrote: “Areas of low pressure almost always have weather fronts as part of their structure, unless they’re a tropical storm. These fronts separate areas of warm and cold air and it’s their interaction that creates and develops wet and windy weather.

“Close to the fronts there tends to be more focused streams of warm and cold air that run parallel to them. They are known as conveyor belts; the warm conveyor rises and the cold conveyor falls. These wrap around the area of low pressure and help develop it by feeding warm air and moisture into the system.

house waves
The term ‘sting jet’ was first used by scientists in 1987 (file)(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

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“The cold conveyor brings its cold air from higher in the atmosphere and from being in a cold air mass. Sometimes it has help from rain and snow as they fall into it and evaporate. This change from liquid to gas requires heat, which is removed from the conveyor, cooling it further. Now we have even colder air falling along the conveyor, speeding up as it does so, like a rollercoaster taking the first drop.

“As this wind reaches the surface it can often produce much stronger gusts would otherwise be made by the storm. However, the cold conveyor catches up with itself after a few hours and consumes the sting jet, keeping the length of time and area of potential damage quite small.”

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