Ireland weather: Status yellow warnings for 11 counties amid rain and strong wind

More rain showers and strong winds are forecast this weekend, with yellow weather warnings in place for 11 counties mainly along the west coast.

A status yellow wind and rain warning has been issued for Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Waterford, Galway, Mayo, Wexford on Saturday from 2am to 11pm.

Met Éireann said southwest winds would be strong and gusty at times coupled with heavy rain and thundery showers. Difficult travelling conditions are expected.

A further wind warning has been issued until 5pm on Sunday in Clare, Cork, Kerry and Limerick.

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Occasional heavy downpours over the next 24 hours are, however, not expected to continue into Sunday night when many open air concerts are due to get under way as part of the New Year’s Eve celebrations. In Dublin open air events are planned for Collins Barracks, Dublin Castle and Meeting House square in Temple Bar. However, Met Éireann said showers should be expected.

Those planning a New Year’s Day swim have been reminded to consider the “48 hour rule” which advises bathers in the Dublin Area particularly, not to swim within 48 hours of a downpour of more than 4mls in a single hour, which carries a danger of pollution run off from drains.

Dublin City, Dún Laoghaire – Rathdown and Fingal councils said the most up to date information can be found here or on council websites.

Met Éireann forecaster Rebecca Cantwell said the worst of the rain should have passed by Sunday evening, but she did not rule out the possibility of further showers.

Earlier, Met Éireann issued a status yellow weather warning for rainfall in counties Donegal, Leitrim, and Sligo, as well as North Mayo. The warning is in place from 6am until 9pm on Friday.

The forecaster said a combination of spring tides, large waves, and strong winds may result in some coastal flooding.

Ms Cantwell said about 25-30mms of rain will fall with the highest totals on higher ground. “They will have persistent rainfall up in the northwest, but there should not be too much disruption and the rain will ease overnight,” she said.

“It will be mostly dry elsewhere and there will be good spells of sunshine. It will be a cold day with temperatures of 4-8 degrees.”

“Further rainfall will move into the southwest, which is going to extend north-eastward across the country so waking up on Saturday morning it is going to be rather wet and windy,” said Ms Cantwell.

“There is a cold front moving through on Saturday so there will be very strong winds. We will then see further showers and more strong winds moving in. There could be more wind warnings associated with that, but it is not clear how that will develop yet.”

Emergency crews worked throughout the day on Thursday to clean up the damage caused by Storm Gerrit and a second low pressure system that passed over the country in recent days.

Met Éireann said the highest winds provisionally recorded on Thursday were at Malin Head and Belmullet where there were gusts of 53kph and 48kph respectively.

A man was taken to hospital with minor injuries after a large tree fell on a taxi he was driving on the Dunmore Road, Co Waterford, at about 11pm on Wednesday.

Gabriel Hynes, senior engineer at Waterford City and County Council, said the incident was a “very close” call.

“A tree fell across the road, an approaching taxi was struck but it landed on the bonnet ... If he was two or three feet further on it could have been critical, with the tree landing on the roof of the car,” he said, adding the man was “very fortunate” to escape with only minor injuries.

The council official said crews had cleared a number of fallen trees off roads since the height of the storm.

The storm caused temporary power outages and hit water supplies in a number of counties.

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