Weather warning in place for western counties as Storm Bella causes outages

A status yellow wind warning has been issued for a number of western counties until Tuesday morning.

The latest warning comes as hundreds of homes and businesses along the west coast remained without power on Monday afternoon after Storm Bella hit Ireland over the weekend.

The storm struck Ireland on Saturday night and early on Sunday morning with rain and strong winds in many places.

Premises in counties Cork, Kerry, Tipperary, Mayo, Limerick and Donegal were still without power on Monday afternoon, with clusters of power outages along Ireland's western coast.

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In Ballyhaunis, more than 260 ESB customers had no power on Monday afternoon, with more than 200 homes and businesses around Kilgarvan also without power. More than 100 customers based around Kenmare in Co Kerry had no power by 3pm on Monday, while another 175 had no power in Gurranebane.

An ESB spokesman said the network had experienced a “normal, blustery evening for this time of year” on Sunday and that ESB crews had been “mobilised to repair any faults to the network”.

Weather warnings remained in place on Monday for most western and northern counties. A status yellow wind warning was in place for counties Donegal, Mayo, Sligo, Clare, Cork and Kerry until 2pm on Monday. This was followed by the latest status yellow wind warning, for counties Donegal, Galway, Mayo, Sligo and Kerry, which is in place until 7am on Tuesday.

Met Éireann warned that northwesterly winds associated with Storm Bella could reach mean speeds of 50-65km/h with gusts of 90-110km/h. The combination of strong winds, high waves and forecasted storm surge could also lead to coastal flooding, warned the forecaster on Monday.

A status yellow wind and ice warning affecting counties Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Derry expired at 10am on Monday.

Monday night will be cold with frost and icy patches in some areas, while Tuesday will see sunny spells and scattered showers with a chance of snow in some parts.

AA Roadwatch advised drivers to take care on wet and frosty road surfaces which make it difficult to slow down and brake. Road users should also expect wind-blown debris on all routes and give extra room to other road users, especially pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, said AA.

In Co Kerry, diversions were in place on the Tralee/Ballybunion Road just south of Ballyduff at the turn-off for the Causeway as emergency services removed a fallen tree, while more fallen trees were cleared from the N70 Ring of Kerry between Kenmare and Blackwater, according to the AA newsroom. A tree has also been cleared on the N86 between Camp and Dingle.