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N. Ireland was enjoying a fabulous spell of prolonged high pressure weather with clear sunny days and not a drop of rain anywhere. This was when a major outbreak of wild fires began across the country, beginning with the Mournes then Donegal, then on March 31st 2025 a big fire rapidly formed on Sawel mountain within the Sperrins. I raced to the scene to document the event with friends however the fire was well under control by the time we arrived. Despite this we still got footage of the scene and the day ended with an atmospheric Saharan dust sunset when the hazy Sperrins looked like sand dunes in a desert. Little did I know that more major fires where to come on the days ahead and this time I would capture them during their prime. One page report with 6 images and 1 video clip. - REPORT.
* I have two more wild fire reports to do and one thunderstorm report so plenty of website content on the way.
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Spring has arrived with much anticipation and despite a fairly quiet period of sky action things began to change thanks to increasing instability, moisture, the stirrings of the solar wind with a newly discovered comet. On April 28th Colleen Webb and I experienced our first convective cell of the season passing over Lough Neagh bringing a dense precip core and outflow winds which broke in the storm season. On April 4th I did an all night watch at Lough Fea catching several aurora outbursts including one with naked eye rays 30 degrees tall. That morning I was overjoyed to make a visual obsv of a new comet designated C/2025 F2 SWAN visible at 4am in Pegasus. One page report with 13 images and 1 video clip. - REPORT.
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Update: Another major fire near Lough Fea April 10th, thats three Ive filmed in four days, and over 240 reported by fire crews, more images and footage coming.
Quick update, after a quiet start to early Spring things have picked up with a few observing sessions and photo shoots, in fact, I have three reports to do for the website soon, I'm currently working on the first now. Spring convection/storm cell over Lough Neagh, aurora from Lough Fea along with a new comet discovery and climaxing with an outbreak of gorse fires/wild fires across N. Ireland during this fine dry spell of high pressure weather. I documented a fire on Sawel mountain in the Sperrins then a massive fire near Ballygawley the following day which was the largest I've seen since the Glenshane fires a few years back. The Ballygawley fire was quite exceptional with fires near wind turbines and a home, the fire stretched for one mile long with residents saying they had never seen a fire like it in 50 years.
Thankfully fire fighters saved the house and did a fantastic job as always. The above image shows a snippet from that fire. My footage was featured on UTV and BBC television on April 8th. I have quite a lot of website work to get caught up on so please keep checking in for new updates.
Full footage of the Ballgawley wild fire which was featured on television
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During the pre-dawn hours of March 14th 2025 the moon would experience a total lunar eclipse with maximum eclipse taking place at or shortly after moonset making for interesting viewing conditions. Expecting to deal with cloud I woke at 5am to a perfect clear sky which amazingly stayed clear for the entire event. Ten minutes later the first umbral bite appeared on the lunar disk and the eclipse was under way. I watched the event from my front garden among a light frost in almost perfect conditions. As the eclipse advanced the moon took on a thick crescent phase with a dark red umbral shadow weakly illuminating the lunar mare. The view in binoculars was beautiful with the red moon against a deep blue morning twilight complimented by the dawn chorus which made for a very pleasant observing session. One page report with 7 images and 1 video clip. - REPORT.
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2025 began in great style with a G4 geomagnetic storm and SARS arc on New Year's Day followed by a sublime Venus-Moon conjunction then a week long cold spell which brought numerous snow showers and severe frosts. I spent three days on the hunt for Winter photo opps covering convective cells with snow curtains to frozen lakes, however it was January 9th which stood out as exceptional with freezing fog and -7C temps. We encountered beautiful hoar frost scenes in Omagh with trees covered in frost so thick it took on the appearance of snow. Frost covered everything and with blue skies and sunshine we obtained our finest images of the season. The chase converged on Gortin Glen Forest and lakes at sunset where I completed filming of Chronicles Of The Sperrins for the BBC which was a perfect end to the day. Two page report with 39 images and 1 video clip. - PAGE 1, PAGE 2.
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Astronomy is not the only subject I'm interested in, check out my N. Ireland Storm Chasing section and view the chase reports and images which detail not only storms but other phenomena such as a moonbows, noctilucent clouds, aurora displays and exciting nature related photo shoots.
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Martin McKenna
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