There had been rough weather in the preceding days, but a calm had arrived and the currachs were launched to fish a few kilometres offshore. Groups of young men from Cleggan and from the Inishkeas knew that the barometer was reading low, but they took the risk. They had no inkling that a violent storm was bearing down on the west coast.

On the night of October 27, 1927, many boats were lost and 26 men from Cleggan and 12 from the Inishkeas were drowned. The loss to the island community was so great that the Inishkeas were abandoned shortly afterwards.

Advances in weather forecasting were slow to come. Weather stations were mainly land based, so vital data on conditions out to sea were scarce. But analysts were gradually learning how to study the formation and movements of weather systems.

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A notable instance was just before the launch of the D-Day Allied invasion of German-occupied France in June 1944. General Eisenhower had a narrow window of opportunity in which to launch the massive sea-borne invasion, and the optimum time was threatened by bad weather in the English Channel.

At the Blacksod Point weather station, Maureen Flavin Sweeney, the local postmistress, took her regular weather readings and forwarded them to the Met Office in Dublin. Ireland’s position on Europe’s northwestern edge gave it early notice of weather heading towards the English........

© The Mayo News