Watching The Waves Ask Dave a weather question

Dave Thurlow, Host

 
Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow from the Mount Washington Observatory and this is The Weather Notebook. When a big storm hits the coast of Ireland's Cape Clear Island, locals inevitably gather to watch the seas and and share frightening memories of storms gone by. Today, commentator Chuck Kruger tell's of such gatherings.

Commentator: Chuck Kruger

"The shingle before the priest's house tumbles and turns. Another storm wave charges in, breaks. An exploding wall of water blasts high into the air, its lower bulk washing over the seawall, its upper whiteness rushing on, rising over a two-story building originally constructed in the early 1600s as a Coastguard Station. Chimney pots disappear from sight. Main road becomes river in spate.

When I glance back toward the neighboring priest's house, I see a number of jalopies -- called bangers here on Cape Clear Island -- pulling over, parking, a crowd of Islanders gathering far back from the sea, gesticulating, pointing.

I join them. An elderly ex-fisherman tells me he's not witnessed such waves since 1971. Another reminds me of December 17, 1989, when nighttime swells, on a breezeless night, took out the stone wall in front of the priest's house, washed up the hill toward the primary school, and swooped around behind the old Coastguard Station, filling it with mud through the back doors. I learn from a farmer that because Hurricane Noel, 1997's December spectacular, had had no east in it, it hadn't had this effect on the harbor despite winds in excess of 100 miles-an-hour. And I hear from another that a 45-degree variation in wind direction - not necessarily an increase in velocity - can have a major effect on wave impact.

But all the islanders agree the sight of the waves in this southeasterly's an exhilarating experience. And thank God, says one, no fisherman we know's out there tryin' to get home."

Chuck Kruger is an author from County Cork, Ireland. The Weather Notebook is underwritten by Subaru with major support provided by the National Science Foundation.