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The existing status orange wind warning for Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning’s storm has been updated. It is now in place from 4pm until 10pm on Tuesday for Munster, Leinster and south Co Galway.
Met Éireann have also issued an orange wind warning for Connacht, Cavan and Monaghan, where they expect average wind speeds of 65 to 80km/h and damaging gusts of 110 to 130km/h.
Storm Eleanor is expected to continue until 2pm on Wednesday in the rest of Co Galway, as well as counties Mayo, Clare, Cork and Kerry.
The forecast for all these areas is for westerly wind with speeds of 65km/h to 80km/h and gusts of 110km/h to 130km/h. Very high seas along Atlantic coasts will lead to a risk of coastal flooding.
A status yellow warning applies to the entire country from 4pm on Tuesday until 9pm on Wednesday, with southwest to west winds of mean speeds 55km/h to 65km/h, gusting 90km/h to 110km/h.
In Northern Ireland, the Met Office has issued a similar yellow warning except for the very northern coast of the island.
Public transport may be disrupted or cancelled and some bridges are likely to be closed. Power cuts and disruption to other services such as mobile phones for example may also occur, while injuries from flying debris are possible. The Met Office has also warned of the risk of coastal large waves and flooding.
A separate status yellow rainfall warning is in place for Connacht and Co Donegal, where thundery downpours are forecast between 2pm and 9pm this Tuesday with 20mm to 25mm expected to fall in parts.
Storm costs
The Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government this Tuesday published details of the Government funding provided to local authorities to help them deal with storm damage in 2017.
The August flash floods on Inishowen Peninsula, Co Donegal, caused €15.3m worth of damage to roads and bridges alone, according to figures reported by Donegal County Council to the Department of Transport.
The Department of Housing made another €1.73m available to the council for response and cleanup.
Local authorities have obtained €7m in funding from the department for response and cleanup activities caused by Hurricane Ophelia in October. Half of these funds were requested by Cork City and County Councils.
More recently, severe flooding around the River Barrow in the Mountmellick area of Co Laois in November cost Laois County Council €208,000 in response and cleanup costs recouped from the Department of Housing.
Ken Ring’s Irish weather forecast for 2018
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