Storm Ciara Disrupts and Unexpectedly Benefits Europe

Storm Ciara caused significant damage throughout Europe. (Wikipedia Commons)

Storm Ciara, also known as storm Sabine, has created enormous disruptions across Europe since February 9. However, it also generated conditions for a record-breaking transatlantic flight. 

British Airways set the fastest subsonic flight record from New York to London by arriving in four hours and 56 minutes, a full hour earlier than the average travel time of six hours and 13 minutes. Thanks to extremely powerful winds, the airplane reached up to 825 miles per hour during its trip. 

Flights that took off in the opposite direction took two and a half hours longer than the usual travel time. The storm forced numerous airlines to cancel their flights across the region, including hundreds in Frankfurt and Amsterdam, two of Europe’s busiest airports. Despite the travel delays caused by the torrent weather, there have been no reported crashes. 

The storm was also responsible for at least eight deaths in Poland, Sweden, Germany, Britain, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic, and it flooded areas in Germany, including Hamburg’s famous fish market. In response, Germany issued its second-highest storm level warning for large parts of the country. Similarly, the United Kingdom announced “danger to life” flood warnings. Strong winds fanned the wildfires in Corsica, a French island on the southeast coast of France. 

Tens of thousands of homes across Europe have experienced power source disruptions or outages. In Germany, however, winds propelled turbines to produce an immense amount of energy, with some estimates that it produced power at a level equivalent to 44 nuclear power plants.

Irregular weather events like Ciara are becoming more frequent due to climate change. Paul Williams, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Reading, explained that transatlantic flight records have been broken “three times” in the past five years due to increased jet stream speeds in the atmosphere, which helped propel planes. He predicted that these changes will double the number of flights experiencing “very fast eastbound crossings” in the future. 

The increased frequency of severe natural phenomenons has created major disruptions for countries across the continent and on a global scale. Governments will need to develop more effective strategies that are able to address these issues in a shorter amount of time. Given the few unexpected advantages that the storm brought to Europe, governments could also give serious considerations towards intentionally harnessing the power of these events.