81-86mph well to the SW of here, looks like the 'core' is approaching

At the moment, that's not quite as bad as I was expecting by this stage but the Met Office are still forecasting maximum gusts for here of up to 89 mph, there is still plenty of time left for the situation to get much worse here and even if it doesn't the conditions here are already bad enough as it is.

Éowyn is indeed from Tolkein - as the Irish Met Office confirms...

https://www.irishnews.com/entertainment/the-meaning-behind-the-name-eowyn-and-its-lord-of-the-rings-connection-as-rare-red-warning-storm-set-to-batter-ireland-PHD4WWYFVBBSZDECOD6GHZ5XLE/ 

It's roots are from old English, originating in Scotland, I believe, with the addition of the E at the beginning. I guess Tolkien borrowed and adapted it from there. 😊

Wasn't sure if the lack of recent observations was due to loss of comms/power or instrument malfunction. Obviously power loss could lead to malfunction if they don't have backup power supplies

The Irish Times link says:  "Éowyn, pronounced ‘A-yo-win’ was among the Met Office’s submissions and likely derives from JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. In the books, Éowyn is the name of a noblewoman from the kingdom of Rohan.

Fans of the franchise will know that in The Return of the King, Éowyn reveals she is a woman when she fights and kills the Witch King of Angmar, fulfilling the Macbeth-like prophecy that he would not be killed by a man.

It is believed Tolkien invented the name by combining the words ‘eoh’ which means horse with ‘wyn’ meaning joy as in the series the people of Rohan are known as horse riders.

This isn’t the first time the Met Office has taken inspiration from Tolkien. In 2021/2022 their submissions included the name Arwen - the half-elf who marries Aragorn and is played by Liv Tyler in the films."

https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/things-to-do/watch-wildlife-online/loch-of-the-lowes-webcam/ 

It's an interesting point - I suspect it's power loss taking out the comms equipment, as I would have thought that official stations would have had a data-logger / UPS-style battery. That said, you'd have though the comms equipment itself would have been connected to a UPS - a router only takes a few watts to run. Hopefully the data will have been logged, just inaccessible at the moment, as it'd be a shame to potentially have lost a higher Ireland record reading.

Incidentally the BBC now picks up on it possibly being a sting jet. Looking at the satellite image they provide, the ragged end of the "sting" does look like the sort of thing you'd expect to see... and those exceptionally high readings right under it add further fuel.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cy5kwlpzlnkt?post=asset%3A622a8a3d-26f6-441d-be27-b07a93eb0d4f#post 

What this video to the end:

https://x.com/volcaholic1/status/1882726555740410298?s=46&t=0CzXil3QOYbo8W1abHQyVQ 

Same here Ian. I think we got off lightly. 

My thoughts as yourself are with those in Ireland and the North West who are getting a hiding from this. I hope no one is killed or injured.     😞 

I've relatives just across the border in Carlisle and it seems worse there than in Edinburgh

Even here in Edinburgh though, it's still bad enough as it is as shown by the fact that I've just seen a report about a roof being ripped off by the wind from a block of flats in the Slateford area of SW Edinburgh.

Watched that. Bloody Norah!

Storm surge in Troon too:

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1370538450594364 

The centre of the deep depression is about the same pressure and about the same location but the area of strongest wind as measured by the tightness of the isobars is very different. With the Burns Day storm the strongest winds were across S Wales and Central and S England whereas with Eowyn it is much further north across NI, Central and S Scotland and N England.

The highest gust at London Heathrow was 87mph in 1990 but today 57mph this morning at 0700

Thanks, Fairweather. While it's hard to be certain as the storm was at its worst overnight while dark, I don't think that it was all that bad at my location. Stormy certainly but no worse than we would get every now and then every couple of years. Of course, it was far more severe over much of Ireland, although the good news is that it seems that there were no fatalities. The fact that it happened at night was a factor no doubt as well as the red warning. By and large, forecasters seem to have gotten this one right, certainly as regards the track of the storm. 

Very interesting. Just eyeballing the maps, id guess that the 1990 storm had a much larger, possibly even synoptic scale storm wind field. 

If you watch now and rewind about 35-40 mins the whole tree is shaking. Not for those who get motion sickness!