Floods in Ireland

The effect of Hurricane Charley on the Cloghoge River, Ireland

The effect of Hurricane Charley on the Cloghoge River, Ireland

Mary C. Bourke

Martin Thorp, Department of Geography, University College Dublin, Ireland

Project summary

An offshoot depression from ‘Hurricane Charley’ crossed over Ireland in late August 1986. Rainfall amounts exceeded 200 mm in parts of the Wicklow Mountains.

Due to the highly saturated condition of the Cloghoge Catchment, runoff was high. The resulting high magnitude discharge caused extreme erosion of channels and floodplains and deposition of coarse gravels and cobbles on floodplain surfaces.The factors which determined the location of erosion and deposition include: channel pattern, floodplain topography, vegetation, channel morphology, engineering constructions, proximity to sediment source and valley gradient. The location of these individual criteria or their combined occurrence resulted in a rapidly diminished lineal response downstream.

Conference presentations

Bourke, M.C. (1990) The geomorphological impact of the rainfall of August 1986  Cloghoge Valley, Co. Wicklow, Conference of Irish Geographers, University College Dublin.

Bourke, M.C. (1990) The geomorphic effect of the storm of August 25^th/26^th, 1986 on the Cloghoge river, Co. Wicklow. Conference of Irish Geographers, Maynooth.

Theses:

Bourke, M. C. (1990). The geomorphic effects of the August 1986 storm on a glaciated upland catchment in the Wicklow Mountains. Unpublished Masters thesis, University College Dublin.