page_title: 2015–16 UK and Ireland windstorm season
section_title: Storm Desmond
hierarchical_section_title: 2015–16 UK and Ireland windstorm season / Storms / Storm Desmond
caption_attribution_description: English: Storm Desmond on 5 December 2015.
context_page_description: The 2015–16 UK and Ireland windstorm season was the first instance of the United Kingdom's Met Office and Ireland's Met Éireann naming extratropical cyclones. The season started on 10 November with the naming of Storm Abigail and ended on 28 March with the dissipation of Storm Katie. With a total of eleven named storms, the 2015–16 season is the most active to date.
  Storms are named when they are forecast to cause hazards due to high winds by either organisation. The season is most notable for the amount of rainfall which fell over the UK and Ireland, causing the 2015–16 Great Britain and Ireland floods; most of which is attributed to Storms Desmond, Eva and Frank. The strongest low-level gusts of the season came from storms Gertrude and Katie. On 29 January, Gertrude produced gusts of 105 mph at Lerwick, Shetland Islands while Katie produced a gust of 106 mph on 28 March at The Needles Old Battery, Isle of Wight.
  The season preceded the 2016–17 UK and Ireland windstorm season.
context_section_description: Desmond was the fourth storm to be officially named, with heavy rain and severe gales forecast for 5–6 December across Ireland and the north of the UK. On 4 December, the Met Office issued yellow warnings for wind and rain across most of the north of the UK and an amber warning for rain in parts of central and southern Scotland, Tayside and Fife Met Éireann issued a status red rainfall warning for areas of Connacht, as well as counties Donegal, Clare and Kerry, with Clare County Council issuing a flood warning.
  On 5 December, the Met Office issued a red severe weather warning for rain in Cumbria. The Environment Agency had severe flood warnings in place for parts of the River Tyne in Northumberland and across Cumbria.
  The expected heavy rainfall was considered to be an extreme weather event by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, who named it Synne. The US National Weather Service Ocean Prediction Center tweeted that the heavy rain was due to Desmond pulling a plume of moist air across the Atlantic Ocean to Western Europe, a weather phenomenon known as an atmospheric river.
  Approximately 1,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Hawick, Scottish Borders on 5 December, because the River Teviot flooded. Appleby and Keswick in the English county of Cumbria suffered blocked roads and some homes were evacuated; Cumbria Police declared the situation a "major incident". Homes left without electricity occurred in North Yorkshire (over 600) and in Wales (about 700); a further 2,000 people were without power in the Republic of Ireland. Landslides and flooding closed some main roads in Scotland and counties Down and Tyrone suffered road closures from fallen trees.
caption: MODIS image of Desmond on 5 December
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