Ireland should brace itself for storm force winds, heavy rain, sleet and snow, beginning on Thursday night when Storm Éowyn makes landfall.
Met Éireann has issued an advisory for strong to gale force winds and heavy rain with the possibility of snow in western parts.
The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is showing gusts of 175km/h forecast off the coast of Co Kerry on Friday at midday, with parts of inland Kerry, Cork and Waterford set to potentially experience winds of 130km/h at 9am on Friday morning. All parts of the country will have strong winds.
The storm will make landfall on Thursday evening and the winds will start to pick up. By Friday morning the whole country is expected to feel its impact.
Met Éireann says it is likely to issue weather warnings on Wednesday morning, when the exact track of the storm will become apparent.
“There is no two ways about it. It is going to be extremely windy. There will be warnings issued,” said Met Éireann forecaster Mark Rowe.
“It will definitely be more than yellow, but we won’t know further until we get the specifics. The bulk of the country will get very strong winds at some stage on Friday.
“The strongest of the winds will be across the southern half of the country, turning to the south and west later in the evening.
“There will be heavy rain, but this will be primarily a wind event.”
Storm Éowyn would be the fifth named storm of the season, following on from Ashley, Bert, Conall and Darragh.
The origin of the latest name – pronounced Ay-oh-win – has sparked some degree of curiosity.
It is perhaps most widely known as the name of a character in JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series. The fantasy author created the name for a female warrior, who was portrayed by Australian actress Miranda Otto in Peter Jackson’s film trilogy.
According to the babynames.com website, it is primarily a female name of English origin that means Horse Of Joy. It is thought that Tolkien created the name using the Old English words for horse (’eoh’) and joy (’wynn’).
Meanwhile, a status yellow fog warning will come into force for counties Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Louth, Meath, Offaly, Westmeath, Cavan, Monaghan, Leitrim, Roscommon, Tipperary and Waterford at 10pm on Tuesday. The warning runs until 10am on Wednesday.
“Foggy conditions will lead to impaired visibility,” it notes.
Rain is expected to clear later as Tuesday goes on, resulting in some sunny spells albeit with scattered showers mainly affecting northwest areas. Tonight is to be generally dry and calm with some isolated showers, though temperatures are to fall to between minus two and two degrees.
Mist and fog is to clear Wednesday morning and the day is to be dry in most areas with sunny spells and scattered showers.
Things are expected to turn wet and windy on Thursday night with strong and gusty southerly winds. Met Éireann expects that the rain spreading from the southwest will begin heavily and possibly turn to sleet or snow.
Friday’s condition remain uncertain but a very windy day is likely with near gale force westerly winds.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
