The west and south coast is expected to bear the brunt of storm conditions today while some areas were still without electricity last night following Wednesday’s gales.
Met Éireann meteorologist John Eagleton said a national weather warning – status orange – was in effect. This warns of strong and gusty west to southwest winds reaching speeds of 80km/h and gusting to up to 130km/h.
“The worst affected areas will be the western and southern coastal counties,” he said. “There will be gusts up to 130km/h. It will be wet and windy. The morning will start off dry across much of the country, but clouds will increase and winds will pick up from a southerly direction.”
He said there “could certainly” be structural damage.
“It will be a windy day in the midlands and on the east coast, but I don’t think there will be major outages which would be the benchmark for storms.
“I think there might be some local power outages. There won’t be provincial or county-wide outages but there will definitely be some local ones.
“I don’t expect it to cause any major disruption at the moment.”
Mr Eagleton added that there would be rainfall of up to 20mm in the west and 12-13mm in the east.
A combination of high tides with a full moon and heavy sea swell may see a repeat of the flooding that hit some low-lying coastal areas on Wednesday.
In Galway, sea surges over the lower end of the Salthill promenade on Wednesday night scattered rocks, seaweed and debris. A number of cars parked in the area were engulfed by the high tide.
Galway Chamber of Commerce spokeswoman Maeve Joyce last night said the business community in Galway city has not thus far been adversely affected by the weather.
“Trade has been good in Galway over the past week and we’re expecting a good surge in the next few days because obviously the week before Christmas is key to retail,” she said.
“We would hope that the weather won’t impact negatively on this and that the unsettled weather forecast isn’t quite as bad as they are making it out to be.
“It’s key for the trading period between now and Christmas that people can travel and that they won’t be put off by the weather.”
Galway City Council has warned the public of the danger of flying debris in the high winds, and said that the critical time will be this evening, around high tide at 7.06pm. It has rostered staff on standby.
Ms Joyce said the high tide might be a factor affecting retail in the city as shops are open late tonight.
“Once the high tide abates, everything should be fine. People are aware of the weather warning. They’ll have sandbags.”
Vulnerable areas will include the Salthill promenade and Grattan Road, and the city council has warned that Toft Park beside the Atlantaquaria and the main public car park on the promenade could be liable to flooding.
It has advised motorists to take “necessary precautions” and says that the public should “have regard for their safety” from 9am until midnight.
Some 4,000 people were without electricity yesterday after storm damage wreaked havoc with the electricity network.
Those affected were mainly in the northwest and were without power from overnight on Wednesday until about 4pm yesterday. ESB Networks crews were working from first light to repair the damage.
An ESB spokesman said there were still “small pockets” of people without power in some areas last night.
