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Environment
Suzanne Gray, Professor of Meteorology, University of Reading

YOU WONT BELIEVE: Why meteorologists are comparing storm eowyn to a bomb - What They Never Told You

A satellite image of the British Isles during Storm Éowyn's descent. ©EUMETSAT (2025), CC BY

Storm Éowyn has unleashed strong and damaging winds over the British Isles, and particularly over Ireland and Scotland.

Air pressure at the centre of the storm plummeted 50 millibars in the 24 hours leading up to midnight on January 24. That’s more than twice what is required in the definition of “explosive cyclogenesis”, in other words, the development of a cyclonic (anticlockwise rotating) storm that is both rapid and severe – like a bomb going off. As a result, Éowyn can be termed a “bomb cyclone”.

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