Weather warning as heavy rain, strong winds forecast

Heavy rain and strong winds are to hit many parts of the State tonight, Met Éireann has said.

The forecaster has issued a weather warning stating that between 25-40mm of rain is to fall overnight, leading to “widespread excess surface water”.

The warning applies to all areas of the State. Rain hit the south west coast earlier this afternoon and has spread across the country this evening.

In a separate warning, Met Éireann said counties Dublin, Louth, Wexford, Wicklow, Meath, Donegal, Galway, Mayo, Cork, Kerry and Waterford would experience southeast winds of between 50 km/h and 70 km/h with gusts of up to 120 km/h in some areas.

A further wind warning issued by the forecaster said people in counties Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Offaly, Westmeath, Cavan, Monaghan, Leitrim, Roscommon, Sligo, Clare, Limerick and Tipperary should expect southeast winds of between 45km/h and 60 km/h later with gusts up to 100 km/h.

The winds will be strongest in coastal area, Met Éireann said. The weather warnings will remain in place until 6am tomorrow.

Earlier this week Met Éireann said September had been the driest in at least 28 years across large parts of the State but the Indian summer looks to be at an end.

The south, southwest and west of the country underwent a period of “absolute drought” between the 1st and 21st of last month, defined as a “period of 15 or more consecutive days with less than 0.2mm” of rain.

Temperatures across the country were also higher than average for a pleasantly surprising month and warmer for the most part than August.