Ireland is bracing for another “nasty” storm coming in from the Atlantic today, the ninth in just two months.
While hurricane-force winds are not predicted today, Met Éireann has issued weather alerts for heavy rainfall, gale force winds, snow and ice across the country.
Met Éireann’s Joan Blackburn said gusts of wind between 80km/h and 110km/h would be hitting today, strongest in exposed coastal areas.
“The wind strengths are not to be sneezed at,” she said. “It is nasty. The other depression we had this week didn’t have the cold this one will have.”
Ms Blackburn said the winds would reach their peak early afternoon and worst affected areas would be in the south.
“Given that structures are weakened, it would not take an awful lot more to cause problems,” she said.
Ms Blackburn said while the storm would not be as severe as that on Wednesday, people should be careful. “There is a danger of flooding anywhere,” she said.
Fears were rising that major rivers, including the Shannon, could burst their banks.
'Complication'
Ms Blackburn said another "complication" of this storm was that there was a risk of snow falling in the north midlands and Ulster in early afternoon. "It could cause disruption," she said.
But she said the snow would turn to rain in the evening.
Ms Blackburn said the wet and windy weather would spread northward but would be heaviest in the east and south of the country.
She said this storm would move differently from Wednesday’s, as it was coming in from the south rather than the west.
Met Éireann has forecast temperatures would reach a high of 8 degrees today and urged people to monitor the weather warnings in case they should change.
Tomorrow is forecast to be windy, cold and showery with severe gusts of wind.
The winds will ease in the evening but there is a warning of widespread severe frost at night.
Ms Blackburn said while conditions looked better for Sunday, it would be wet in the west.
Forecasts predict between 30-45mm of rain will fall in the next day. The snow and ice warnings remain in place until 3pm today, with scattered snow showers throughout the day.
All alerts are yellow status for now, which is to notify people at risk to take preventative measures and is the least of the weather alerts issued, but Met Éireann urged the public to monitor any changes.
Ms Blackburn said the reason for the recent bout of severe weather was the jet stream above the country.
'Jet stream'
"Some winters we get severe weather conditions and some we don't. It has been a particularly severe year this year," she said. "Basically the jet stream is right over Ireland feeding into the depression and the storms. There are a very strong core of winds and control developing systems where they move," Ms Blackburn said.
