Lightning strikes significantly damaged two houses in Dublin on Friday evening as Met Éireann issued a Status Yellow thunderstorm warning for much of the country.
Three units from Dublin Fire Brigade brought the house fires in the Blanchardstown area of the city under control shortly after 7pm.
Pictures posted on the fire service’s social media accounts show the scale of the damage, with the lightning strike and subsequent fire having taken part of the roof off one of the properties.
At 5pm, the Status Yellow thunderstorm warning was issued for the whole of Leinster and seven other counties.
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The Met Éireann warning covers Cavan, Monaghan, Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford and Leitrim as well as Leinster with the alert set to stay in effect until 9pm.
There is the potential for spot flooding and hazardous driving conditions across the 19 counties covered by the warning.
Showers will gradually become isolated early tonight and be mostly confined to the north and east with some clear and dry intervals developing in the west and southwest.
Saturday will be generally cloudy with rain showers becoming fairly widespread in the afternoon with a few likely to be heavy and possibly thundery in the east.
The best of the drier and brighter weather will be in the west and southwest.
A moderate to fresh northerly breeze will persist with highest temperatures of 15 to 19 degrees.
Sunday is likely to start “rather wet and blustery”, Met Éireann said “with a band of rain moving across the country during the morning with some heavy falls at times.
The rain will gradually clear away to the east followed by scattered showers. Highest temperatures of 16 to 20 degrees in fresh and blustery westerly
The start of next week will bring a mix of cloudy periods and sunny spells with a few isolated showers too.
A fresh westerly breeze will persist through the afternoon with highest temperatures of 18 to 21 degrees.
