Thousands without power as thunderstorms sweep across Ireland
Thousands of homes and businesses were without power on Monday morning after thunderstorms swept across much of Ireland.
ESB Networks said lightning strikes caused a number of faults on the electricity network overnight.
The largest outage was experienced in Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny, where 5,000 customers lost power at 5am. Power was fully restored by 6.30am.
An outage impacting 1,200 customers hit Ahane in Co Limerick. Several faults were also reported near Nenagh, Co Tipperary.
A national thunderstorm warning ended at 9am, but another then came into place for counties Carlow, Kilkenny, Kildare, Laois, Offaly, Wicklow, Wexford and all of Munster, with very heavy showers and thunder likely until 10pm.
Scattered showers🌦️ & thunderstorms⛈️ today, intense through the afternoon with the risk of flooding.
Fresher & drier further north by late afternoon with sunny spells🌤️.
Highs🌡️ of 15 to 17°C in the north & west, 18 to 23°C elsewhere with light to moderate northerly winds🍃. pic.twitter.com/3ODuorRoDH— Met Éireann (@MetEireann) August 15, 2022
Met Éireann said scattered showers and thunderstorms would continue to affect the southern half of the country on Monday, becoming intense through the afternoon with the continued risk of flooding.
It will be fresher, but drier further north with just isolated showers and intermittent sunny spells.
The stormy weather comes after a heatwave was officially declared in Ireland over the weekend as temperatures exceeded 25 degrees Celsius for the fifth day in a row.
Ireland's all-time temperature record for August was broken on Friday, with Oak Park in Co Carlow reaching 31.7 degrees.
The previous record was set by both Ballybrittas, Co Laois in 1975, and by Oak Park itself in 1995.
