The first named storm of the season swept across Ireland on Sunday, leaving thousands of homes without electricity, causing flights to be delayed, diverted and cancelled, and creating hazardous conditions around the coast as its arrival coincided with unusually high tides.
Storm Ashley felled trees in many areas, disrupting traffic and causing council crews to have to go out during the day to clear them, while in two facilities in Co Wicklow where accommodation is being provided to international protection applicants, occupants had to be moved to houses for shelter as their tents were damaged or threatened by the wind.
Some sports events were called off due to the weather, including the Armagh football final, which was postponed at short notice when scaffolding at the grounds was blown over.
ESB Networks worked throughout the day to fix power outages, mostly in western counties Mayo, Galway, Sligo, Clare, Cork and Kerry, but also in Dublin where a major outage in Belcamp affected approximately 9,000 homes.
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During the afternoon, there were about 53,000 customers without power. Later, by 8.30pm, power had been restored to a substantial number of the affected customers, though about 29,000 remained without power.
As the storm tracked north across the country and with wind warnings in place until the early hours of the morning, ESB Networks said it had all available resources on alert to respond to faults when safe to do so.
“While crews and contractors will work to restore supply to as many homes, farms and businesses as possible through this evening, significant numbers of customers ... are likely to be without supply overnight,” it said.
In Northern Ireland, approximately 4,000 customers were without electricity by 5.30pm, according to NIE Networks.
The strong winds made for a “challenging day” for Dublin Airport, according to DAA spokesman Graeme McQueen.
“Gusting winds in the Dublin area throughout the afternoon and evening have made it difficult for some planes to land, resulting in a number of diversions and go-arounds being performed,” he said.
By 6.30pm, 27 aircraft had performed go-arounds while 28 had opted to divert to another airport.
[ Storm Ashley causes several postponements to GAA county finalsOpens in new window ]
“As a result of the challenging weather in Ireland, and the knock-on impact of delays at other airports in the UK and Europe, some airlines took the decision to cancel flights over the course of Sunday,” he said. “So far, around 60 flights due to fly in and out of Dublin Airport have been cancelled.”
Improved weather on Monday should help the airport get back to normal, Mr McQueen said, though Sunday’s disruption, both at Dublin Airport and elsewhere, could impact on some flights.
Four flights were cancelled at Belfast International Airport as of Sunday evening. One flight arrived there having diverted from Dublin, and two were diverted away from Belfast to other destinations.
There were 15 cancellations at Cork Airport, a spokesperson saidwhile 10 flights were diverted. Three of the diverted flights went to London Stansted, one to Dublin, and the remainder to Shannon.
Monday’s weather is be drier and brighter, with spells of sunshine and scattered showers turning cloudier in the afternoon and evening, with “showery outbreaks of rain spreading eastward,” according to Met Éireann.
Temperatures of up to 15 degrees are forecast, with moderate to fresh south-westerly winds, though strong on Atlantic coasts.
The forecast is for a lot of dry weather during the next few days, but more unsettled weather later in the week – and then, “while there’s some uncertainty, there’s the likelihood of some drier weather for the Bank Holiday weekend”.
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