Another weather warning as more wind and rain is forecast

Yellow weather warnings issued for the south as unsettled spell continues

A yellow rain weather warning has been issued for Connacht, Donegal, Cork, Kerry and Waterford for all day Tuesday.

Rainfall amounts of between 30mm and 50mm will fall in the 24-hour period between Tuesday midnight and Wednesday midnight.

Local flooding is expected in parts of west Cork, which have already been badly affected by flooding elsewhere after Storm Ellen last week.

This will be accompanied on Tuesday with winds gusting at between 90 and 110 km/h in Munster and Wexford and higher in coastal areas.

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It may mean that ESB crews will have to restore power to householders again. Approximately 100 customers are still without power as a result of Storm Ellen.

Met Éireann forecaster Liz Walsh said people who are camping in coastal areas along with the south and south-east need to pay attention to the weather forecasts.

“People on staycations should avoid mountains and camping over the Munster coast,” she said.

There is a possibility that the yellow wind and rain warnings will be extended to the whole country and updated to an orange warning in places along the south coast.

“It’s a little bit uncertain. It’s all to do with a deepening low pressure area that is approaching from the Atlantic,” she explained.

“We are having a little problem guessing how deep that low will become and that in turn will influence what happens warnings wise.”

Ms Walsh said Storm Ellen saw the lowest atmospheric pressure ever recorded in Ireland in August generating very strong winds that brought down trees and left more than 200,000 premises without power.

She said winds will not be quite as high as Ellen where the highest 10 minute mean wind speed ever recorded in Ireland was recorded at Roches Point at 10pm on August 19th with a speed of 111 km/h. At the same time Roches Point recorded the second highest wind speed ever recorded in Ireland in August with a speed of 143 km/h.

The unsettled weather is likely to continue after a brief hiatus on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday are also likely to be exceptionally wet days with heavy thundery rain expected on Thursday and showers on Friday.

The forecast for the weekend is for drier, calmer conditions over next weekend with sunny spells and well scattered showers. However, it will be cooler than recently.

Wet Augusts are not uncommon, said Ms Walsh. August is the second wettest month of the calendar year because of the prevalence of post-hurricane storms in Atlantic and high humidity which can lead to heavy thundery showers.

Ronan McGreevy

Ronan McGreevy

Ronan McGreevy is a news reporter with The Irish Times