Weather alert for rain and wind across much of the country

Met Éireann has issued wind and rain warnings for much of the country as a miserable cold and wet May continues.

Temperatures are between two and 2.5 degrees lower than normal for the month with rain, hail and snow and it has also been extremely wet in the southern half of the country.

Status yellow wind warnings have been issued for counties Cork and Kerry for the whole of Thursday. They have also been issued for Waterford and Wexford from Thursday morning into Thursday evening.

There is a status orange marine wind warning from Mizen Head in Co Cork to Valentia Island in Co Kerry for all of Thursday with the chances of coastal flooding.

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A status yellow rain warning is in place for the counties of Clare, Cork, Kerrry, Waterford, Galway and Mayo for the whole of Thursday.

Rainfall will be highest in mountainous areas with accumulations of 50mm in places and some localised flooding.

The strong wind and rain will herald a miserable four days of weather with only Saturday offering any respite and that will be short-lived.

Northerly airflows

All parts of the country will get between 30mm and 70mm of rain with high winds and heavy showers everywhere.

To date the average temperature across the country is 8.8 degrees, two degrees lower than the seasonal norm. In Dublin Airport the average temperature is just 8.2 degrees. The May norm is 10.7 degrees.

The poor weather is being blamed on northerly winds that are bringing low-pressure systems across most of western Europe.

“They aren’t going anywhere. Normally this time of year you expect warm weather to get lodged in and that draws in a southeasterly airflow. Historically, May is the sunniest month of the year,” said Met Éireann forecaster Siobhán Ryan. “Good Mays don’t often lend themselves to a good summer. It might stand to us.”

Ms Ryan said better weather might be on its way towards the end of next week. “It can go either way, but it seems to be going towards drier conditions later in the month with some improvement in the temperatures.”