Rain to ‘hammer’ west on Saturday

It was one of the wettest days of the year yesterday but tomorrow is set to bring even more rain when the west coast in particular can expect “to get hammered”.

The east bore the brunt of yesterday’s rainfall, according to Met Éireann meteorologist John Eagleton, who said the wettest region was Oakpark, Co Carlow, where 36mm fell.

Elsewhere, there was 32mm at Dublin Airport, and Mr Eagleton said the two figures “were fairly typical of the east”. About 30mm fell in all areas from Dundalk down the coast as far as Co Cork before it “began to tail away”.

“That’s well over an inch,” said Mr Eagleton. “It was certainly a contender for the wettest day of the year – certainly in the east – but, nationally at least, it will be beaten on Saturday. That will be a wet day.”

Northwest largely unaffected

In other parts of the Republic, there was 17mm in Shannon, Co Clare, 22mm at Roche’s Point, Co Cork, 33mm in Wexford and 12mm in Ballyhaise, Co Cavan. The northwest was largely unaffected.

Mr Eagleton said a typical but “very active” front would generate about 10mm of rainfall.

“This was a front with a wave on it,” he said. “Those tend to bring much heavier rain.”

He said the system developed in the south Irish Sea. “There was no wind around, so the wave front slowed down and there was nothing to push it along from the Atlantic. When that happens it starts to build its own momentum internally.”

Met Éireann said there would be a “continued risk of localised flooding” tomorrow, when the rain will continue into the night. “We’re going to have a system developing like the one we had today,” he said.

“It will move across the country with more waves on it, bringing up pulses of heavy rain. The net result will be that approximately 60-80mm will have fallen between [yesterday] and Saturday.

“The west got nothing on Thursday but it is going to get a good dump on Saturday. From late Friday night through to Saturday it is really going to get hammered.”

He said the east will “get a good 20mm” while the west can expect “a good 40mm or maybe even more” as the rain is expected to fall for 36 straight hours.

“It’s going to last the guts of 36 hours,” he said. “If you’ve 36 hours of continuous rain and even if you only get a millimetre an hour, that’s 36mm.”