Weather recession adding to gloom

THE GLOOM of an economic slowdown is not all Irish people have to contend with this weekend, with Met Éireann warning Ireland is facing into a “weather recession”. Fintan O’Shea, a meteorologist with the State forecaster, said weather patterns suggested conditions would deteriorate further over the coming days, with another weekend washout forecast.

Mr O’Shea predicted that a large depression would move over Ireland today and about 30mm-40mm of rain could fall over the weekend, which represents almost half the average rainfall for a summer month. “A band of heavy rain will hit the south coast this afternoon and this will spread gradually across the country during the day,” he said.

The outlook for tomorrow offers little solace for those wishing to spend a summer’s day outdoors, with strong northerly winds and temperatures in the mid teens at best set to exacerbate the weekend gloom.

“Saturday will be a dull and overcast day, with widespread rain, heavy at times, especially in the southeast of the country. A large part of the day will have continuous rain,” Mr O’Shea said.

Met Éireann believes there will be a minor respite early on Sunday, with the sun possibly making a cameo appearance. However, lengthy downpours, which could turn thundery, strong winds and low temperatures are to bring the weekend to a close.

Mr O’Shea said the spell of poor weather did not yet parallel the misery experienced in Ireland last summer, when rain fell for 49 consecutive days between June 11th and July 29th. However, he said that if conditions did not improve next month, the record 350mm of rainfall recorded from June to August last year could be matched or exceeded.