Why Storm Eunice Is So Severe? Reason Behind Violent Wind Storms

Storm Eunice: The UK's recent cluster of winter wind storms is related to a particularly strong polar vortex creating low pressure in the Arctic.

The UK Met Office has issued two red weather warnings in as many months for strong winds. These are the highest threat levels meteorologists can announce, and are the first wind-only red warnings to be issued since 2016's Storm Gertrude.

So what's behind the UK's recent spate of dangerous wind storms? And are these events likely to become more common in future? Storm Arwen in late November 2021 caused devastation across Scotland, northern England and parts of Wales. Winds of 100mph killed three people, ripped up trees, and left 9,000 people without power for over a week in freezing temperatures.

The destruction caused by Arwen is still apparent in some areas, and the clean-up from Storm Dudley - which battered eastern England on Wednesday February 16 - is underway at the time of writing.

Now the UK faces Storm Eunice, and its gusts of up to 122 miles per hour. Eunice bears a striking similarity to the "Great Storm" of 1987, which unleashed hurricane-force winds and claimed 22 lives across Britain and France in October of that year.