Weather warning for heavy rain in place over weekend

Potential for local flooding along west coast amid wet and windy spells

There will be heavy rain with thunder and intense wind on Saturday, and on Sunday showers will come in from the west accompanied by westerly winds, with temperatures of 13 to 15 degrees. File photograph: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters
There will be heavy rain with thunder and intense wind on Saturday, and on Sunday showers will come in from the west accompanied by westerly winds, with temperatures of 13 to 15 degrees. File photograph: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters

Hang on to your umbrellas as it is likely to get wet and windy this weekend.

Met Éireann has a weather warning in place for the whole weekend, with intense rainfall from 60 to 90mm foreseen for short spells in southern and western counties.

The rain is forecast particularly in coastal and mountainous areas and brings potential for localised flooding.

Mild sunny breaks as likely over the Midlands and northeast.

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There will be windy conditions too, continuing into Monday and Tuesday, with strong gale force winds over land at times.

Wet and windy spells mean potential for local flooding along the west coast, but Dublin will probably be one of the areas getting some sunshine, said meteorologist Joan Blackburn of Met Éireann.

There is also a sea area gale warning in place today for southeasterly gales developing this afternoon and evening on all Irish Coastal Waters and on the Irish Sea. These are set to veer southerly tonight and reach gale force 9 at times tomorrow, on western coastal waters.

"The jet stream is in position over Ireland at the moment and is bringing deep low pressures close to Ireland," Ms Blackburn said. "That's giving us the strong winds and heavy rain. But in between we'll see some sunny breaks, so it's a mix of everything."

There will be heavy rain with thunder and intense wind on Saturday, and on Sunday showers will come in from the west accompanied by westerly winds, with temperatures of 13 to 15 degrees.

Rain is expected to clear up on the eastern half of the country by Monday, though strong westerly winds will persist.

Possibly very heavy rain will spread eastwards overnight, bringing a much colder Tuesday with strong northwesterly winds and possible gales and highest temperatures of 9 to 12 degrees.

The Met Éireann warning comes as Hurricane Gonzalo wreaks havoc across the Caribbean. Currently battering Bermuda, forecasters warned waves would rise between 35 to 45ft and create a potential storm surge of 10ft that would cause significant flooding on the island.

Even though the storm is expected to remain a Category 3 as it passes Bermuda, the National Hurricane Centre said “any weakening is probably too late to spare Bermuda, with almost all of the guidance showing the system as a major hurricane as it moves nearby”.

The potent storm is expected to move north and east across the Atlantic towards Ireland and Britain in the coming days. However, it is expected to drastically lose power as it works its way east.