Localised seven-day weather forecasts have become available to the public with the unveiling on Wednesday of a new Met Éireann website.
The national forecaster is already amongst the most visited public sector sites in Ireland, particularly when weather warnings are issued and severe conditions hit the country.
For Storm Ophelia and Storm Emma it received 412,000 and 328,000 daily visitors respectively.
The revised service offers seven-day forecasts for local areas, including live rainfall radar images. The forecaster has previously provided shorter-term forecasts, shying away from more long-range predictions available from other services.
“It will be a very useful tool for the Irish public as they go about their daily routine both as general and more specialised consumers of weather information,” said Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government Eoghan Murphy who is launching the new site.
Met Éireann director Eoin Moran said the provision of localised forecasts is a major development in the service.
“Our Harmonie Forecast model has been developed specifically for Ireland’s weather and climate and is the most accurate short-term weather forecast product available for Ireland,” he said.
The new site is also intended to play an educational role on climate issues, he said.
“We plan to further develop this digital platform over the coming years to play our part in engaging and educating young people.”
Met Éireann will also use the website to publish data sets as part of Ireland’s Open Data Strategy, which will increase the volume of information available over the coming months and years.
