WEATHER chiefs warned that Storm Herminia is approaching from a different direction than what we had from Storm Eowyn – bringing more chaos to other parts.
Historic Storm Eowyn brought gale force winds of 180kph and caused widespread power outages and business closures.
Alan O’Reilly from Carlow Weather said: “Pretty clear from Powercheck map that most of the Southeast excluding Wexford escaped the worst of Storm Eowyn but Storm Herminia will be strong enough in those areas today.”
The weather expert said temperatures will range from -3C to 8C.
He said: “Unfortunately, Storm Herminia is bringing some rough weather to the south coast, already gusting to 98 kilometres an hour at Roches Point and 94 kilometres an hour at Sherkin Island.”
There will be widespread rain, wettest in the southwest.
Alan continued: “Very heavy rain also moving up across the country, feeling bitterly cold.
“There is frost in the north of the country, but even the South, the wind chill makes feel a lot colder than what the temperature may seem to be.”
The Carlow man warned today will be a “rough day” with plenty of rainfall.
He said: “If we look at the wind forecast here, you can see strong gusts moving up across the country, especially into the south and the east.
“There could be some issues at Dublin Airport. It is a south east wind direction, which is a different wind direction than what we had from Storm Eowyn.
“So it is going to be a little bit different, and it may well bring some new power outages unfortunately. So stay safe and hope the lights stay on if you have them.”
Some 402,000 homes, farms and businesses were still without electricity yesterday evening.
ESB crews worked tirelessly to restore power to 366,000 premises.
Met Eireann forecaster Linda Hughes confirmed there’s “more unsettled weather on the way” as several yellow weather warnings are in place.
She said: “Sunday is going to be a wet and at times, very windy day.
“Highest amounts of rain in the south and south east, with some spot flooding possible.
“So yellow rain warning for there, starting at 5am continuing until 5pm.
“A yellow wind warning then for counties, Carlow, Dublin, Kilkenny, Wexford, Wicklow, Munster and Galway, from 6am until 6pm -starting a bit later at 11am then for the North West for Louth and Meath.
“So further, very strong gusts may cause some further damage.”
A large low pressure system will bring some “very strong winds and heavy rain” today and tomorrow.
Our weather is “staying unsettled” on Monday, with further “strong winds and some heavy rain”.
The low pressure system will begin to move.
The meteorologist said: “It is going to start moving away to the northeast on Tuesday, so an improving picture during Tuesday into Tuesday night.
“But we may see another low come near Ireland on Wednesday.”
