Second massive storm in two weeks hits North Atlantic and Western Europe

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/storm-dennis-second-massive-storm-in-two-weeks-hits-north-atlantic-and-western-europe-2020-02-16/

By Jeff Berardelli
February 16, 2020 / 8:43 PM / CBS News

One of the strongest storms in modern history is pummeling the North Atlantic and western Europe with massive waves and hurricane force winds. The system's name is Dennis and it comes less than a week after storm Ciara helped power a British Airways flight to a new trans-Atlantic speed record over 800 mph.

Dennis is massive, spanning more than 3,000 miles in width from eastern Canada to Scandinavia. The behemoth's pressure dropped to 920 millibars near Iceland this weekend, on par with the most intense hurricanes including Hurricane Maria in 2017 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The lower the millibars – a measure of atmospheric pressure – the stronger the storm, and Dennis' barometric pressure is just 7 millibars short of the record-strongest North Atlantic non-tropical storm from 1993.

On Friday and Saturday, wind gusts in Iceland reached well over hurricane force, clocking in at an astounding 256 km/hr, or 159 mph.

•••••

tags: extreme weather, severe weather