The New Year's Day Storm (Norwegian: Nyttårsorkanen) was a powerful European windstorm that affected much of northern Scotland and western Norway on January 1, 1992. DNMI estimated the strongest sustained winds (10 min. average) to have reached 90 knots (45 m/s). Unofficial records of gusts in excess of 130 knots (67 m/s) were recorded in Shetland, while Statfjord-B in the North Sea recorded wind gusts in excess of 145 knots (75 m/s). There were very few fatalities, mainly due to the rather low population of the islands, and the fact that the islanders are used to powerful wind. In Norway there were one fatality, in Frei, Møre og Romsdal county. There were also two fatalities on Unst in the Shetland Isles. The low figure was probably because it struck in the morning on a public holiday.
Famous quotes containing the words year, day and/or storm:
“The higher the mountain on which you stand, the less change in the prospect from year to year, from age to age. Above a certain height there is no change.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The day has gone by into the dim vista of the past when idleness was considered a virtue in woman.”
—Caroline A. Huling (1857–1941)
“When the storm rattles my windowpane
I’ll stay hunched at my desk, it will roar in vain
For I’ll have plunged deep inside the thrill
Of conjuring spring with the force of my will,
Coaxing the sun from my heart, and building here
Out of my fiery thoughts, a tepid atmosphere.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)