Sir, – Brian Coulter (April 17th) wonders why Met Éireann does not issue weather warnings for the entirety of Ulster, rather than the counties of Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal.
Weather warnings are a serious business, and are designed to prompt citizens to take actions that will protect themselves and their property from anticipated hazards. Clarity and absence of confusion in the warnings message are paramount. For that reason the World Meteorological Organisation (the UN agency that co-ordinates the world’s weather services) promotes the “Single Official Voice” policy. This policy (respected by Met Éireann) dictates that only one organisation should issue weather warnings for any given territory, and that this organisation should be the relevant National Meteorological Service (NMS). Responsibility for weather warnings for the six counties of Northern Ireland lies with the UK Met Office.
Recognising that travel across national borders is routine for European citizens, the NMSs across Europe have established the Meteoalarm service. This collects weather warnings from across the continent and presents them on one website (meteoalarm.eu) using colour and symbol to remove dependence on language. Met Éireann has recently aligned our national warnings service fully with Meteoalarm, using the yellow/orange/red categorisation to present weather warnings with greater clarity and impact. – Yours, etc,
GERALD FLEMING,
Head of Forecasting,
Met Éireann,
Glasnevin Hill,
Dublin 9.