So it seems only fair to have a look at the history of land falling storms in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland and it turns out there is quite the history. Using reconstruction the first land falling hurricane was in 1680 which became extra tropical and affected both Wales and Southern England, then some two hundred years later another one crossed the UK causing rough seas in the English Channel, followed by three in three years (and the last two happening within two months of each other!)
In the 20th century, the UK has had land falling hurricanes in 1922, 1961, 1966, 1973, 1978, 1986, 1993, 1996 and 1998 (including famous hurricanes such as Debbie, Charley and Lili) and since the turn of the millennium we’ve had Issac in 2000, Katia in 2011 and now Ophelia in 2017.
So what’s likely to happen? Well, the latest estimates are calling for a landfall at around 1.00pm BST on Monday in the extreme south west of Ireland, tracking across the island and reaching Northern Ireland by 5.00pm BST before travelling across the sea to Scotland making a second landfall in Argyll and Bute around midnight on Tuesday morning, and then a third landfall over the Orkney Islands and a fourth landfall over the Shetland Islands during the course of Tuesday.