WEATHER UPDATE REGARDING FRIDAYS WET AND WINDY WEATHER - WEATHER WARNINGS IN PLACE
Information to follow was included by Meteorologist Liz Walsh from Met Eireann on Thursday 8th November
Yellow weather alerts have now been issued by the forecast office for Friday 9th November.
The area of low pressure we have been watching is now about 1200km west-northwest of Nova Scotia in the Atlantic (circled in red on the satellite image below). It will soon begin to deepen rapidly over the next 24 hours as it swings eastwards across the Atlantic before it makes a turn northwards on Friday morning around 500km off the west coast of Ireland. Rain and wind associated with this vigorous system will begin to affect the west and southwest of the country between 4 and 6am on Friday.
Continues below
The rainfall warning covers a number of counties including Mayo, Galway, Cork, Kerry, Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow, Kilkenny, Kildare, Carlow, Dublin and Louth and is valid from 6am to 6pm. Rain will become widespread on Friday with some intense bursts of rain occurring over a relatively short time period which will lead to spot flooding. The heaviest of the rain will occur in the west and southwest during the morning and early afternoon. The focus of the heaviest rain will then transfer eastwards through the early and late afternoon, with the rain giving way to scattered showers in the west and southwest.
The wind warning has been split to accommodate the timing of the strongest winds in different parts of the country. The Connacht and Munster wind warning is valid from 4am to 3pm, while the Leinster and Ulster wind warning is valid from 8am to 7pm.
As the wind is coming from a rapidly deepened low, the atmosphere will be unstable which means that gusts will feature prominently in many areas. Most of the gusts will be within the limits of our yellow warning criteria – up to 110km/hr – but exposed coastal regions and areas of higher ground inland, especially in the southwest, south and southeast, will experience gusts greater than this – possibly up to 125km/hr. Winds of this speed can cause significant damage and caution is advised.
There is also a risk of coastal damage, especially on parts of the east coast as winds, high spring tides and storm surge combine to produce spray and wave overtopping.
Information to follow was included by Meteorologist Liz Walsh on Wednesday 7th November
It’s been a rather unsettled week of weather so far with spells of wet and windy weather. Excess water has occurred on the roads at times, with spot flooding compounded by autumn leaves blocking drains.
Our weather will remain unsettled through the rest of this week, and Met Éireann forecasters have been monitoring developments for this Friday 9th November particularly closely. There are a number of low pressure systems or depressions dotted around the North Atlantic at present, but the one we are particularly interested in is an area of low pressure over Newfoundland in Canada which is expected to move out into the Labrador Sea tonight, Wednesday night.
This low pressure system will travel eastwards across the Atlantic by Friday, helped by a strong jet stream which will serve to deepen the low significantly by the time it comes close to our shores. The (by then) deep low will travel northwards to the west of Ireland during Friday, and the associated fronts will track in over Ireland during Friday morning and afternoon bringing strong winds and heavy rain and there is potential for severe and damaging gusts, especially on coasts. There is also a risk of coastal damage due to wave overtopping, with the timing of the strongest winds coinciding with high tide on some coasts.
We’ll be closely monitoring forecast data from our 54-hour high resolution model, HARMONIE over the next 12 to 24 hours with further updates to follow.
See the first hourly wind and rain projections for Friday morning 9th Nov from HARMONIE below:
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