The remnants of two hurricanes are expected to bring a lot more wind and rain to much of the south and west of Ireland over the coming days.
Status yellow wind and rain warnings have been issued by Met Éireann for 15 counties with flooding possible on the west coast.
The heavy rain is being caused by the remnants of Hurricane Lee which has turned into an Atlantic depression, and has brought with it a lot of moisture which has fallen as heavy rain.
Some parts of the east coast had 70mm of rain between Saturday and Monday with a lot more rain to come. It has been an exceptionally wet September in the Dublin area. Already Dublin Airport has had 50 per cent more than the average September rainfall with 11 days left in the month.
While road conditions may be poor in many counties, Laois, which plays host to the National Ploughing Championships at Ratheniska until Thursday is likely to escape the worst of the wind and rain.
A status yellow rain warning has been issued for Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, Donegal and all counties in Connacht until 6am on Wednesday.
Spells of rain will be heavy and persistent at times giving accumulative totals of 30mm to 60mm, with commuters facing challenging conditions in many parts of the country. The rain will ease off for a time in many parts on Tuesday daytime, before heavy spells of rain return on Tuesday evening and night.
A status yellow wind warning has been issued for West Galway and Kerry, with very strong and gusty south to southwest winds until 3am on Wednesday with difficult driving conditions and a chance of falling branches and trees.
Another yellow warning has been issued for Cork, Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow overnight on Wednesday while during the day on Wednesday the winds are set to move to Donegal and Mayo with the Yellow warning in place from 6am to 6pm.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday will be mixed with sunshine and showers. The remnants of another hurricane, Hurricane Nigel, will arrive on Irish shores next weekend with a lot of wind and rain. It will also be relatively mild. “During the hurricane season, you can quite often get the remnants of a hurricane which is carrying warm. moist air,” explained Met Éireann forecaster Andrew Doran-Sherlock.
