Cyclone Dagmar

Cyclone Dagmar (also referred to as Cyclone Tapani in Finland and as Cyclone Patrick by the Free University of Berlin) was a powerful European windstorm which swept over Norway on Christmas Day 2011, causing severe damage in central coastal areas, before continuing over the Scandinavian peninsula towards the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland. The storm caused $45 million (2011 USD) in damage. Patrick formed as a small low just south of Newfoundland on 24 December. The system raced across the north Atlantic, deepening rapidly to 956 mb (28.2 inHg) by Christmas Day. Patricks extraordinary windspeed was due to it being a secondary low to the deep cyclone Oliver to the north and the powerful high Cora to the south, enhancing the southwesterly winds on the south side of the low. On 26 December, Patrick made landfall in western Norway with a central pressure of 964 mb (28.5 inHg). The storm continued to move eastwards at a rapid pace, however, as it was overland it had weakened significantly. It hit Finland the same day, St. Stephen's Day (Tapani in Finnish), and got the Finnish name due to that day. It then moved out of the Free University of Berlin's tracking charts the next day. Patrick (Dagmar) arrived in Norway as a southwesterly storm, with windspeeds estimated to be on average 110 km/h (30 m/s; 67 mph) on the coast.