Tropical Storm Helene will take a northeastward track towards our shores early next week. It is currently transitioning to an extra-tropical cyclone southwest of the Azores Islands, which is where Hurricane Ophelia started out. This means that Helene will lose it’s tropical characteristics and become more akin to the low-pressure systems we are used to seeing in our part of the world.

The current forecast is that Helene will be to the south of Ireland on Monday night. The low-pressure system will move northeastwards up through the Irish Sea overnight Monday and early on Tuesday. The exact path is still uncertain. Met Eireann says that a humid spell of wet and windy weather is expected to sweep up over Ireland on Monday night and early Tuesday as a result. There will potentially be warnings for wind and rain issued for day one of the Ploughing.

Hurricane season

While Helene is the only tropical storm Ireland needs to worry about, the Atlantic hurricane season is at its peak and there are a number of tropical storms at large at the moment.

Graphic from the National Hurricane Centre.

Current advisories in force from the National Hurricane Centre include:

  • Hurricane Florence on the North Carolina coast, which is forecasted to continue to move slowly inland over the continental United States.

  • Tropical Storm Helene located over the eastern Atlantic Ocean.
  • Tropical Depression Isaac, which will continue to move westwards onto the Caribbean Sea while weakening.
  • Tropical Storm Joyce, which is expected to dissipate in the coming days over the south-central Atlantic.

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