Met Eireann issued an "advance" severe weather alert to public bodies directly concerned on Tuesday, over a day before the storm hit the south-west, according to a spokeswoman. She said normally such a warning was not issued until the severe weather was imminent due to the difficulty of predicting details.
The spokeswoman told The Irish Times that, because of the time of year and the numbers of people travelling, the office had contacted all county councils, the ESB and others on its list on Tuesday to warn of the possibility of a severe storm.
She acknowledged that the forecasts to the media referred only to "wet and windy" weather but said they did warn that winds would reach "up to gale force" on Christmas Eve. However, gusts reached hurricane force - over 100 m.p.h. - in some places and there were some thunder storms.
"The details are often very difficult to pin down," said the spokeswoman. "In fact, from Saturday we were talking about very severe winds. All county councils were alerted, as we have to if we're expecting mean winds of over 35 knots and gusts of about 60 knots. The ESB and everyone on our books were contacted on the evening before Christmas Eve.