This morning the UK Met office issued early warnings ahead of 2 low pressure systems which will effect Ireland on Wednesday afternoon into Thursday morning which was named storm Dudley. A second low pressure system is then expected on Thursday night and on Friday with again the risk of strong winds and also the added risk of snow for places with the storm which has neem name Storm Eunice. Met Eireann have also issued warning ahead of this period.

Storm Dudley

Storm Dudley which is first up will move to the northwest and north of Ireland on Wednesday into Thursday morning clearing to east over Scotland and northern England later in the morning. Storm Dudley will bring strong winds nationwide with severe and damaging gusts across Connacht and Ulster. Antrim, Derry, Donegal and north Sligo winds will be close to red level warning possibly up to 150km/hr for a time. At present Donegal, Derry and Antrim are under a Orange and Amber warning for winds gusting up to 130km/hr with Sligo, Leitrim and Mayo possibly been added to this warning on Tuesday morning when Met Eireann will be updating warnings.

The rest of Ireland is under a status yellow warning for winds winds gusting up to 110km/hr

STORM EUNICE

Storm Eunice will follow just hours after storm Dudley which again will bring the risk of severe and damaging winds along with the added risk of some snowfall also possibly bringing blizzard type conditions to parts of Ireland. There is some uncertainty regarding the track of Storm Eunice at present but at present the GFS and ECMWF weather models brings severe and damaging winds to the southern half of Ireland on Thursday night into Friday morning. This storm looks even stronger than Dudley which is a cause for concern with added factor of the strong jet stream over Ireland doesn’t help things either. The latest model run from the ECMWF model can be seen below showing the wind gust speeds for Thursday night into Friday morning

There will also be the risk of snow in places with blizzard conditions especially on the northern and western edge of this low which would give places the chance of waking up to some accumulations on Friday morning. Some places possible receiving a good dumping but this yet cannot be pinned down until we know the track of this low because any shifts to the north or the south with the center of Eunice will mean only certain areas would see snowfall. The trend at the moment from the forecast show Ulster and Connact at the most risk. Latest snowfall amount chart from the ECMWF model and GFS can been seen below