List of natural disasters in Ireland

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This is a list of natural disasters in Ireland.

Colour scheme used in this table:

Geological event
Cold weather event
Hot weather event
High winds event
Wet weather event
Famine
Sickness epidemic
Year  | Disaster event  | Notes; disaster type, people killed, region affected, etc.

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70,000–75,000 ybp | Prolonged volcanic winter | Long lasting volcanic winters following the Toba catastrophe have been hypothesised to have killed every human not living in Africa at the time.[1]
535–536 | Extreme weather events of 535–536 | The most severe cooling in the Northern Hemisphere in the last 2,000 years, likely caused crop failures and freezing for everyone in western Europe.[2]
1315–17 | Great Famine of 1315–1317 | Throughout Europe.
1740 | Irish Famine (1740–1741) | Somewhere between 310,000 and 480,000 people starve in Ireland due to cold weather affecting harvests.
1816–19 | Typhus epidemic | Outbreak in Ireland.
1839 | Night of the Big Wind | A European windstorm swept across Ireland causing hundreds of deaths and severe damage to property. Gusts were over 100 knots (190 km/h; 120 mph).
1840s | Great Famine (Ireland) | Starvation events. Killed over 400,000 people from starvation and disease.
1918–19 | 1918 flu pandemic | Worldwide influenza pandemic nicknamed The Spanish Flu.
1990–91 | Winter of 1990–91 | Periods of heavy snow and rainstorms lasting from December 1990 to February 1991 throughout Ireland and Western Europe.
2008 | 2008 Irish flash floods | Flash floods throughout August lead to one death and the destruction of 50 houses.
2009 | 2009 British Isles floods | Strong winds and heavy rain across the British Isles. Over 40,000 people in Cork were left without running water for a week, with 18,000 left without a supply for ten days. Many had to be rescued or evactuated from their homes.[citation needed]
2012 | 2012 British Isles floods | A series of low pressure systems steered by the jet stream bring the wettest April in 100 years, and flooding across Britain and Ireland. Continuing through May and leading to the wettest beginning to June in 150 years, with flooding and extreme events occurring periodically throughout parts of Western Europe.
2013 | 2013 British Isles heatwave | The heat wave indirectly caused 30 deaths by drowning.
2015 | 2015–16 British Isles floods | Flooding in Donegal, Connacht, Munster and the midlands caused millions of euro worth of damage. In Glaslough, County Monaghan, the dead body of a 70-year-old man was found when his car was believed to have become trapped in a dipped part of a flooded road.[3]
2017 | Hurricane Ophelia | During the autumn of 2017, Ireland was hit by Hurricane Ophelia, which had completed its transition into an extratropical cyclone shortly before its landfall in Ireland and subjected the island to hurricane-force winds. Three people were killed by fallen trees in Ireland and 22,000 people were left without electricity.
2018 | 2018 British Isles heatwave | Summer 2018 was the fifth hottest in the CET records back to 1659, with the period May–July being the hottest such period on record.[4]
2020– | COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Ireland | Outbreak of SARS-CoV-2, originating in China, has caused over 188 million cases and more than 4 million deaths globally as of July 2021.[5] In Ireland, it has resulted in 1,725,026 cases and 9,366 deaths.[6]

## See also

[edit]

* List of disasters in Great Britain and Ireland by death toll
* Geology of Ireland
* Tsunamis affecting the British Isles

## References

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1. ^ Boissoneault, Lorraine (25 February 2020). "Toba Catastrophe questions after discovery of tools found in India". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 26 February 2020. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
2. ^ Gibbons, Ann (15 November 2018). "Why 536 was the worst year to be alive". Science Magazine. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
3. ^ "Singer Ivan Vaughan dies in floods in Co Monaghan". The Irish Times. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
4. ^ "Mean CET ranked coldest to warmest from 1659 to 2021". Met Office.
5. ^ "COVID-19 figures worldwide". BBC News. 17 July 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
6. ^ "Ireland's COVID-19 Data Hub". Gov.ie. Department of Health (NB: The data on this site changes weekly).