Ireland hit by strong winds and heavy rain in weekend of weather warnings
Ireland is being battered by strong winds and heavy rain after forecasters issued some weather warnings this weekend.
Met Éireann urged those along the west coast to take care in unseasonably windy conditions on Saturday evening.
The coastal areas of Mayo and Galway are under a status-yellow wind warning until 9pm on Saturday.
A very blustery showery afternoon with some longer spells of rain too🌬️🌦️🌧️
Increasingly windy with fresh to strong and gusty west to northwest winds and choppy seas around our coasts🌬️https://t.co/Xg3aMJlyuS pic.twitter.com/iJa8Uk9YpC— Met Éireann (@MetEireann) July 15, 2023
In the North, a status-yellow warning has been issued by the UK Met Office with a forecast of heavy showers and thunderstorms that could lead to some flooding and disruption. The warning is to last until 8pm on Saturday.
It comes as parts of the west have had more than 50mm of rain in the last 36 hours. Athenry recorded 34.7mm of rain on Friday and so far on Saturday another 24.3mm. Mount Dillon in Co Roscommon had 39.8mm on Friday and a further 15.2mm so far on Saturday.
Yesterday was a wet day for most of the country 🌧️
Below are some of the 24 hour rainfall accumulations across our network of weather observing stations
More wet weather is expected across many parts today too ☔️
More here 👇https://t.co/9gKN6SVok4 pic.twitter.com/oIz0VOXDCw— Met Éireann (@MetEireann) July 15, 2023
The weather station in the Phoenix Park recorded 25.4mm of rain on Friday and Saturday, almost as much as for the entire month of May and half of what was recorded in the whole of June.
The Forever Young Festival in Co Kildare was disrupted by high winds and heavy rain, leaving some attendees shut out of the site on Saturday.
There was criticism of the short notice given to day ticket holders about the restricted entry for Saturday. Some day travellers had arrived on-site to discover they would not be admitted. Videos posted on social media showed muddy underfoot conditions caused by overnight rain.
Meanwhile, southern Europe is sweltering in temperatures above 40 degrees in a heatwave named "Cerberus", after the three-headed dog of the underworld in Greek mythology.
