Weather Ireland: Thunderstorms and risk of localised flooding this week, Met Éireann warns

Further thunderstorms in the first half of the week could lead to more instances of localised flooding in some parts of the country, Met Éireann has warned.

A significant clean up operation continued on Sunday in Tralee, Co Kerry, following “torrential” rain in the town the day before, which saw flash flooding cause damage to a number of premises.

At the height of the heavy rain and thunderstorms, up to 10,000 homes were without power across the country, with ESB Networks crews working through Saturday and Sunday to repair outages.

By late Sunday afternoon most homes affected had power restored, while work continued to repair remaining outages, a spokesman for the company said.

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“Crews mobilised at first light and restoration efforts in all impacted areas are continuing,” the spokesman said.

The national weather forecaster said heavy rain and some thunderstorms on Monday will bring the possibility of further localised flooding.

The outlook for the first half of the week is for more unsettled weather, with thunderstorms forecast as well as temperatures in the high teens to low 20s.

The forecast for Tuesday warns of a showery day with rain becoming heavier and to likely include some thunderstorms.

Temperatures are forecast to be highest on Thursday, which will see expected highs of between 19 and 24 degrees, Met Éireann has said.

A status yellow weather warning was in place for most of the country, apart from a handful of counties along the east coast, until 10pm on Sunday.

Tralee experienced “torrential thunderstorm downpours” for less than an hour on Saturday afternoon, Kerry County Council said.

Rebekah Wall, co-owner of Maddens coffee shop in Milk Market Lane, which had to be evacuated, described the downpour as “biblical”.

As well as shops and other businesses, University Hospital Kerry said it had been impacted by flooding and advised patients to only present to the hospital if it was an emergency.

Two lifeguards who were “in the vicinity of a lightning strike” on Banna Beach in Co Kerry were taken to hospital for observation as a precautionary measure.

The lightning strike on Banna beach occurred shortly before 4pm on Saturday, with neither lifeguard injured during the incident.

[ Yellow thunderstorm warning: ESB crews carrying out repair works to restore power after ‘biblical’ rain in Tralee ]

In north Clare, fire crews attended the scene of a house fire on Saturday, which was believed to have been started by a lightning strike during a thunderstorm.

Amid concern about extreme weather events, a leading expert on climate science said Ireland was experiencing a marine heatwave in its coastal waters that was “very unusual” for this time of the year.

Peter Thorne, a professor of physical geography at Maynooth University, said ocean temperatures around Ireland were “really anomalously warm” at present.

“The marine heatwave has been building for some time. It is very very unusual,” he said. Temperatures at seas would not be expected to reach current highs until August or September, he added.

The heatwave, which was partially as a result of climate change, would have a knock-on “impact for sealife”, he said.