Businesses around the Spanish Arch area of Galway city are on the alert for a flood warning on Monday, when some of the highest tides to reach Ireland's coasts in the past century are due to occur.
The tides are expected to be up to 30 per cent higher than normal, prompting property owners to store up sandbags in case of an emergency. It is expected that sea levels will reach 18.6 ft on the evening high tide at 6.30 p.m.
However, Dublin City Council said yesterday that predicted high tides on their own were not likely to cause problems with flooding.
The severe disruption such as that experienced in the Ringsend and North Strand areas in February resulted from a combination of predicted high tide levels, coupled with wind direction and very low atmospheric pressure, it said.
Given the current weather forecast and conditions, it is "not now expected that high tides will reach the levels initially predicted", it said.
The high tides are a result of the orbital alignment relationships between the earth, moon and sun, and the gravitational forces exerted by the sun and moon on the earth's surface.
Irish Water Safety, which has issued a warning, says this gravitational force will be compounded next week as a result of the sun and moon's particular declination and the sun's elliptical orbit being at its closest for five years.
The tides will be only slightly lower than the highest tide of the 20th century, in 1993. The full impact on Monday will depend on weather conditions.
