Parts of Killarney, Co Kerry, and Cabra, Dublin city, experienced significant flooding on Thursday night.
Killarney saw “torrential downpours”, according to Kerry County Council. The county had not been under a weather warning.
Some roads in the town were “impassable” after “significant flash flooding”, the council said on X.
Mayor of Killarney John O’Donoghue said most of the town had been hit by “the worst flooding in a lifetime”.
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Motorists were last night asked to avoid the area after the heavy downpours and torrential rain.
The N71 Muckross Road, the main tourist road to Killarney National Park, was flooded, as was the N22 Cork-to-Killarney Road at Pike Hill.
Fire service and car removal vehicles were called to the scene at the train bridge alongside the town centre where a number of vehicles became stuck in the sudden floods.
“The clean up job will be immense and my thoughts are with all those seeing the waters come in their doors causing huge damage to homes and businesses,” O’Donoghue, a Kerry Independent Alliance councillor said in a post on social media last night.
Speaking on Friday morning, Paul Neary of Kerry County Council said that between 7pm to 8pm “the skies effectively opened”. He said 57mm of rain fell over a four hour period with 30mm falling in one hour alone.
“We’ll be doing an assessment this morning,” he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland. “We know there’s probably a number of properties flooded. I don’t think it’s as bad we initially thought, maybe in single figures but I know there’s some commercial properties affected and we’re be doing an assessment of Killarney Leisure centre this morning, we believe some flood waters got in there.”
Separately, a status orange rain warning was issued for Dublin, warning of spells of “very heavy rain”. The warning has now expired. Measurements at the Phoenix Park weather station recorded about 49mm of rain fell in Dublin between 8pm and 11pm and 61.8mm overall yesterday.
Some areas of the capital were flooded on Thursday night, including parts of Cabra in Dublin 7. Footage posted on X showed flooding on Offaly Road, next to Christ the King Boys National School and church.
Local Green Party councillor Feljin Jose said the flooding was “very significant”.
Cabra in Dublin 7 .. an hour ago pic.twitter.com/XbRR2aPDOH
— ken dunne (@DunneKen) August 27, 2026
“I didn’t see any houses flooded, thankfully, but all the roads around the church in Cabra East were flooded,” he said, adding that it was “incredibly scary with a lot of rain to come tonight”.
Jose, who lives nearby, said Dublin City Council crews were pumping water and clearing drains.
“But the drains are full. There’s nowhere for the water to go,” he said.
Speaking on Friday morning, Jose said the water had receded.
“Dublin City Council were out from around 10pm clearing out all the drains that got blocked with all the dirt and the debris,” Jose said.
Many of the drains in the area date from the 1930s, he said, and “cannot cope with the amount of water” during periods of heavy rainfall.
“When a lot of that area was built, there was a lot more greenery around there, but most of that has been tarmacked over, most of it has been concreted over...
“With more and more extreme weather events on the horizon, we need places for the water to soak and drain naturally into the ground.”
The orange alert, issued late on Thursday night, remained in place until 3am on Friday and warned of “very difficult travelling conditions”.
Met Éireann also extended a previously issued status yellow rain warning to include counties Kildare and Dublin.
That alert, which included counties Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Wicklow, Cork and Waterford, warned of heavy rain with a possibility of thunderstorms and potential localised flooding. It expired at 6am on Friday.
Today’s weather will see rain in the east and southeast at first this morning, with patches of drizzle, mist and fog elsewhere. Met Éireann says that rain will clear later this morning and sunny spells will improve this afternoon, although some showers will develop too, turning heavy at times. Cloud will increase across the southwest this evening. Warm and humid with highest temperatures of 18 to 23 degrees, in a light to moderate west to northwest breeze.
It will become wet tonight as rain spreads from the southwest, reaching Ulster towards morning. The forecaster says rain will be heavy at times and may cause localised flooding with isolated thunderstorms possible also. Winds will be mostly light and variable but will increase moderate to fresh northeasterly in the southwest later. There will be lowest temperatures of 11 to 15 degrees.
