Over 50 babies were born while Storm Emma delivered 50cm of snow to the U.K.

This Day In Weather History is a daily podcast by Chris Mei from The Weather Network, featuring stories about people, communities and events and how weather impacted them.

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This article and podcast are being produced three years after Storm Emma. Storm Emma covered Ireland, Wales and southwest England in 50cm of snow.

Currently, Dublin, Ireland's high is 9°C and Devon, England's high is 12°C. Those temperatures make more sense for Ireland and England during the middle of February.

Storm Emma, who already seems fancy because of her geography, developed on Feb. 26, 2018, and dissipated on Mar. 5, 2018. She wasn't necessarily fancy, but she was unique and packed a punch.

These areas of Europe aren't used to extreme winter storms. What happened was Storm Emma, which was a deep depression, collided with Anticyclone Hartmut (also known as the "Beast from the East").

Emma's warmer, damper air travelled over the cold air that was over Western Europe. This combination meant up to 57 cm for areas of the United Kingdom. Temperatures dropped throughout the area, falling as low as −11 °C, which is over a 20-degree swing from today's temperatures.

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This quantity of snow is even difficult to manage for places that are used to storms. It's not often that Wales, Ireland, and southwest England see this much snow, so there are added complications.

Thousands of schools closed while hundreds of cars were stranded on the roads. Unfortunately, the icy conditions led to increased motor vehicle accidents, which claimed some lives throughout the storm.

In Dublin, the roads were undrivable, so some hospital staff had to walk over two hours to work. Other staff personnel who were already at the hospital ended up staying there for four consecutive days.

During the height of the storm, more than 52 babies were born at the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin, Ireland. And none of them were named Emma. Luckily, some parents saved the day at a nearby hospital and did call their child Emma. It's the right thing to do after all the brave staff (and the brave mother/parents) trudged to the hospital.

To learn more about Storm Emma, listen to today's episode of "This Day In Weather History."

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