Chance of White Christmas in parts after Storm Eva

Almost 2,000 homes have woken up without power on Christmas Eve and forecasters say a white Christmas is possible in some parts of the country.

Met Éireann has issued a yellow alert, the lowest level warning telling people to take preventative action, for wind in Leinster and Munster on Christmas Eve.

Wind gusts are expected to reach 100km/hr and speeds between 45-65km/hr. The warning is in place until 11am , however, some thunderstorms and heavy rain are expected throughout the day.

Parts of the west coast were battered by winds of 120 km/h on Wednesday as the storm hit a region still recovering from almost unprecedented levels of rain brought by Storm Desmond.

About 1,900 homes have no power on Thursday morning following damage from Storm Eva.

“We hope to have everybody back before Santa comes,” a spokeswoman for ESB said.

The counties worst affected by the outage are Dublin, Meath, Tipperary, Cavan, Cork and Wexford.

There were about 6,000 customers without power on Wednesday night. The worst affected areas are Fermoy and Cobh in Co Cork, and Johnstown in Co Kildare.

ESB Networks said crews would continue to work as long as it was safe to do so, but that it would be lunchtime on Thursday before power was restored to all customers.

Met Éireann issued an orange wind warning for Counties Donegal, Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Clare, Cork and Kerry. A lesser status yellow warning was in place for all of Leinster as well as Counties Cavan, Monaghan, Leitrim, Roscommon, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford.

‘On the edge’

Meteorologist Klara Finkele said Met Éireann was “on the edge” of issuing a status red wind warning following high gusts at Belmullet, Co Mayo.

“We were a little bit concerned earlier because we had a 45-knot wind in Belmullet, gusting 73 knots,” she said. “That would be right on the edge of a status red warning, but it came down to about a gust of 65 knots an hour later. Elsewhere, Mace Head had a 40 knot wind, gusting 56 knots.

“We extended the orange wind warning down to Clare and Cork where there were quite high winds. Roche’s Point at 5pm had a 35 knot wind. Sherkin Island had a 30 knot wind with a gust of 44 knots. So it’s been very very windy.”

Nine islanders were flown to Tory island off Co Donegal by the Irish Coast Guard helicopter. Christmas post and cargo, including 45 bags of shopping and toys, were also delivered in a series of five flights undertaken from Carrickfinn Airport to Tory by the Sligo-based Irish Coast Guard rescue helicopter.

The helicopter cargo included 10 boxes of bread, 40 crates of milk, 30 bags of potatoes, 10 boxes of fruit and vegetables, 25 boxes of meat, 15 boxes of groceries, and toys.

Postal deliveries

Ferry services to the island had been disrupted for the past week due to weather, and residents had no postal deliveries of fresh food supplies as a result. The flights took place before the peak of Storm Eva was due to hit the west and northwest coast.

Ms Finkele said the storm would pass by on Thursday morning, leading to colder weather with temperatures of two to six degrees on Christmas Eve.

“Once the storm has cleared it will turn colder, so it will be a chilly start with some sunny spells,” she said. “It will brighten up by afternoon. There will be heavy thundery showers in the west and north and they may turn wintery, especially on higher ground.”

Christmas Eve night will be “quite cold” with temperatures dropping to one to four degrees with frost. Winds will be light to moderate. Towards dawn on Christmas Day rain will “push in from the southwest and become widespread and quite heavy”.

Highest risk

Ms Finkele said that because of the low temperatures, there was a good chance of snow on Christmas Day. “The freezing level will come down to about 400 metres, so there will be wintery showers on higher ground and they will be more frequent, and heaviest in the north and west,” she said.

The “highest risk” will be in places like Kerry, Cork and Donegal, while the east will be “mostly dry” but with an “outside chance”.

An Irish Coast Guard spokesman was keen to emphasise weather conditions would not affect toy deliveries by Santa Claus on Friday, and pointed out that the Irish Aviation Authority had already granted approval for “multi-point landing by a low-flying sleigh”.