Wind / Rainfall warnings :Potentially very windy Weds 18th Dec 2019

Gaoth Laidir

It was a welcome change to have it like the old days and not have media hype about a bit of wind and rain. Unfortunate that the Salthill tide just happened to hit bang on the wrong time but them's the breaks sometimes.

For me the offiicial forecasts were fairly well worded earlier on, with the cautionary note that warnings may be upgraded later. Anyone in the west should have been fairly prepared, but I think the fact that some got caught out is exactly down to the fact that the rag media outlets - where most people seem to get their "news" lately - didn't do their usual ott hype. More fool them, I say. If people would stop reading what these shítheads write and instead get their info from reputable sources then a level of intelligent forewarning could be established and the Salthill situation could have been avoided. Maybe M.É. were late with the Orange, but I don't think it would have changed much. The tide would still be hitting at the same time, and with the windspeeds forecast all along for the west it was always going to be a dicey situation, orange or not.

Gaoth Laidir

Donegal Storm wrote: »

Forecast after the 9 news last night showed storm force on the west coast, gale/storm force + high tide usually means flooding at Salthill..

Correct. It said "Storm" along the Galway/Mayo coast and "Gales' off the south and east coasts. Problem is, who looks at these anymore? People get their "news" purely by scroll-scanning headlines in newsfeeds.

ninebeanrows

Looking at some of the twitter feeds are baffling, from the comments people dont seem to understand a yellow wind warning for all of Ireland was issued on Tuesday st 10am.

The warning was updated at 10am on Wednesday to indicate risk of higher gusts in coastal areas of west and southwest.

Did people not read these or what?

You can leave the debate about the timing of switch to orange for a later date but people cannot say they were not warned a nasty evening was ahead , the mind boggles

BorneTobyWilde

Most of the country was blown tonight, and no one really knew anything about it .

funnyname

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

Most of the country was blown tonight, and no one really knew anything about it .

Had to get chainsaw out tonight to remove a small tree that fell across our rural lane.

Gaoth Laidir

Just for the record, this was an update from Met Éireann this morning. Clear as day.

Warning updated:

Status Yellow - Wind warning for Ireland

Update:
Southeast winds, later veering southerly will gust 90-110km/h today. Winds will peak this evening and tonight. Stronger winds are possible in west and southwest coastal areas.

Valid: 12:00 Wed - 03:00 Thurs

il gatto

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

Just for the record, this was an update from Met Éireann this morning. Clear as day.

pauldry wrote: »

From Sligo County Council

Storm conditions and severe gusts have resulted in fallen trees all over the county. Roads crews and Fire Service personnel
have been attending to incidents in

Ballymote
Calry,
Cloonamahon
Ballina rd.
Sligo Town
Strandhill Rd Sligo Town
L3502 WoodVille Road completely blocked
Holy Well road on the dromahair side
Ballincar.
Ballymote to Buninadden road between 5 crossroads and buninadden

Also Strandhill to Ransboro was blocked totally. And I think in several other places on the peninsula. Also saw several emergency vehicles out around Skreen. I imagine there’ll be some cleaning up to be done in the morning.
Still, yellow warning eh? No immediate threat. Hmmmmm!

ZX7R

Quite enjoyed that storm, I think a quiet plausible reason people think it was so bad is down to timing .iIt hit early more people awake to experience it .
Winds always seem worse when you experience it.
Plus the direction it came a strong southerly component to it and with the extremely heavy rain today and for most of Autumn till know, it's not going to take much of depression to fall tree's.
I headed the warnings and advisory's the last two days and left the motorcycle at home and got a lift to work.
As far a salt hill flooding goes , but sorry it's happened nearly every storm but people are still surprised and shocked when it happens it's like a broken record at this stage I've no sympathy left for people parking there.

JJayoo

Shocking wind for about 1.5 - 2hours, then back to normal

Green Peter

Met Eireann asleep at the Wheel, think it's time they got a shake up and a few professionals were brought in, if not maybe they could tune into the BBC or Sky and give out their forecasts

RobertKK

Met Eireann were pretty accurate apart from the late orange updates for parts of the west.
Even in areas like my own which had its worst storm of the year in terms of gusts and 10 minute average speeds, it still was only a yellow warning level as gusts did not exceed the 110km/hr level needed for Orange.

Maybe the biggest issue is previous storms and the perception people have when it comes to warnings and getting orange warnings in the past where said areas were really only yellow at most.
It’s weather and unpredictable but if people were unaware that there were warnings out well in advance for yesterday and thought “it’s only yellow” then that is not Met Éireann’s fault. It is people choosing to dismiss because it was not orange or red.

Green Peter

RobertKK wrote:

Maybe the biggest issue is previous storms and the perception people have when it comes to warnings and getting orange warnings in the past where said areas were really only yellow at most. It’s weather and unpredictable but if people were unaware that there were warnings out well in advance for yesterday and thought “it’s only yellow†then that is not Met Éireann’s fault. It is people choosing to dismiss because it was not orange or red.

We got an orange earning one hour prior to the storm , that's if you happened to be tuned into some sort of media at the time that was actually carrying the warning. Since the colour coded warning have come in it seems they always go a shade up "just in case" and people now don't have faith in it. They constantly seem to be way off the mark and this time it was in the opposite direction. Great that it wasn't bad where you were but I can assure you there will be serious damage to be seen in the morning. Hopefully no one was seriously injured

Graces7

Green Peter wrote: »

We got an orange earning one hour prior to the storm , that's if you happened to be tuned into some sort of media at the time that was actually carrying the warning. Since the colour coded warning have come in it seems they always go a shade up "just in case" and people now don't have faith in it. They constantly seem to be way off the mark and this time it was in the opposite direction. Great that it wasn't bad where you were but I can assure you there will be serious damage to be seen in the morning. Hopefully no one was seriously injured

Utter hyperbole … Most of us have faith in met ie and use common sense, And up to each of us to stay abreast of developments.

They handled last night very well.

Graces7

It hit out here at 10 pm precisely...Well warned by events in Galway and the met.ie warnings so knew it was coming and that it would be short-lived

So when it hit I turned out the light and went to sleep ... All was as safe as it could be..

There is almost nothing to be damaged out here; all went decades ago...

Listening now to the grumbling wind as it slowly calms.

Very happy with the warnings and met forecasts.

Green Peter

Pretty short notice at 8pm for a 9pm orange earning, it's no wonder people missed it. The damage will be extensive in the morning when day breaks. Met Eireanns credibility is all but gone!

RobertKK

Green Peter wrote: »

We got an orange earning one hour prior to the storm , that's if you happened to be tuned into some sort of media at the time that was actually carrying the warning. Since the colour coded warning have come in it seems they always go a shade up "just in case" and people now don't have faith in it. They constantly seem to be way off the mark and this time it was in the opposite direction. Great that it wasn't bad where you were but I can assure you there will be serious damage to be seen in the morning. Hopefully no one was seriously injured

It was bad enough for my inland location.

We had the same issue with Storm Darwin when it got upgraded to red for Kilkenny when we were in the middle of the worst storm in decades.
Yes it’s not good but it was not unlike we did not have warnings about it and a colour change does not mean one should have originally thought “it’s X colour rated” means it will be ok, if it warrants any colour then people should just stay updated and monitor it and not think weather is an exact science when it is predicted weather. It is the best estimate at the time.
Of course it will not always be 100% accurate but it is why we have experts who give weather predictions based on the best information available to them.

greenpilot

Glasshouse completely destroyed here near knock. Trees down everywhere. Will get pics when it gets bright. Met Eireann completely dropped the ball here. That structure has survived 22 years of storms and was completely flattened last night. A neighbour 1/2 km away called to say some shards of glass hit her house. This rubbish of "met eireann got it right" is completely bull. This will absolutely become apparent as the morning progresses and reports come in.

tabby aspreme

Green Peter wrote: »

Pretty short notice at 8pm for a 9pm orange earning, it's no wonder people missed it. The damage will be extensive in the morning when day breaks. Met Eireanns credibility is all but gone!

Would the trees not have blown down if Met Eireann had called an Orange warning earlier

RobertKK

greenpilot wrote: »

Glasshouse completely destroyed here near knock. Trees down everywhere. Will get pics when it gets bright. Met Eireann completely dropped the ball here. That structure has survived 22 years of storms and was completely flattened last night. A neighbour 1/2 km away called to say some shards of glass hit her house. This rubbish of "met eireann got it right" is completely bull. This will absolutely become apparent as the morning progresses and reports come in.

But maybe people did not read the warnings...

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

Just for the record, this was an update from Met Éireann this morning. Clear as day.

Warning updated:

Status Yellow - Wind warning for Ireland

Update:
Southeast winds, later veering southerly will gust 90-110km/h today. Winds will peak this evening and tonight. Stronger winds are possible in west and southwest coastal areas.

Valid: 12:00 Wed - 03:00 Thurs.

Gaoth Laidir

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

It was a welcome change to have it like the old days and not have media hype about a bit of wind and rain. Unfortunate that the Salthill tide just happened to hit bang on the wrong time but them's the breaks sometimes.

Such selfish thinking, a danger to the rest of us. It is imperative that Met Éireann actively resist your kind of thinking, and people in your position are forced to threaten property damage via protest to ever be listened to again. You wouldn’t be sneering if we were talking deaths overnight, which we very well could have been. Safety over convenience every time. I’d rather the toddlers bitching over warnings that don’t apply to them over property damage & risk to life any day. People don’t have time to dig into the details of obscure wearher warnings, and a snapshot of weather like this instead of the sustained damaging winds which eliccits the weather warnings needs the same level of alert.

I will say the level & county area system are f*cked. They need to dig deeper than counties into townships. “Orange warning with area boundary from Athenry westward to Clifden,North to Belmullet, East to Ballina before returning to Athenry” The toddlers will bitch about whether X township should be in the area, but at least it’ll be granular enough to give an accurate picture.

Edit: I was on shift in a factory overnight, we had our break at 9. 2 motorbikes have hundreds in damage after they were knocked by the winds, some car doors were damaged, another few hundred. Not nice the week before Christmas. All over by the time we finished at 11.45.

Gaoth Laidir

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Such selfish thinking, a danger to the rest of us.

What? How exactly am I a danger to you?

It is imperative that Met Éireann actively resist your kind of thinking, and people in your position are forced to threaten property damage via protest to ever be listened to again.

Again, what?

You wouldn’t be sneering if we were talking deaths overnight, which we very well could have been. Safety over convenience every time. I’d rather the toddlers bitching over warnings that don’t apply to them over property damage & risk to life any day. People don’t have time to dig into the details of obscure wearher warnings, and a snapshot of weather like this instead of the sustained damaging winds which eliccits the weather warnings needs the same level of alert.

I will say the level & county area system are f*cked. They need to dig deeper than counties into townships. “Orange warning with area boundary from Athenry westward to Clifden,North to Belmullet, East to Ballina before returning to Athenry”

The toddlers will bitch about whether X township should be in the area, but at least it’ll be granular enough to give an accurate picture.

Toddlers?

Weirdest post of the year, this.

Villain

The late Orange warning was a bad call by Met Eireann, charts were pretty consistent on the secondary low by this time yesterday morning. I'm really not sure why they resisted the Orange change for so long in the West.

I mean how many people check warnings hourly?

Anyway for another thread now really but we should really move to the impact system, main issue last night was high tide in Galway at peak of storm there.

Gaoth Laidir

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

What? How exactly am I a danger to you?



Again, what?



Toddlers?

Weirdest post of the year, this.

Let me spell this out for you in language you’d understand.

You are happy with how the reporting went last night.

Last night’s reporting was dangerous to some people.

Ergo, to keep people like you happy, others would need to be put into danger.

To keep people out of danger, your input, and people who agree with you, need to be actively resisted from
having any influence whatsoever.

giveitholly

greenpilot wrote: »

Glasshouse completely destroyed here near knock. Trees down everywhere. Will get pics when it gets bright. Met Eireann completely dropped the ball here. That structure has survived 22 years of storms and was completely flattened last night. A neighbour 1/2 km away called to say some shards of glass hit her house. This rubbish of "met eireann got it right" is completely bull. This will absolutely become apparent as the morning progresses and reports come in.

Met Eireann were late with their orange warning in fairness but if they had given the warning in time how would that of saved your glasshouse?

Storm 10

Yesterday Cork was on Orange from early on they had very little impact from Elsa we were on Yellow which is just a bloody gale and well used to them here, our reliable weather posters here were saying yesterday morning the West could go even to Red so what was ME doing Galway City and County Councils were informed one hour before the storm hit no time to close roads and sandbag business premises .What normal person last night would be aware of an Orange warning with one hours notice so we were well caught out with this one.

ednwireland

got a battering in sw donegal last night between 11pm and 2am. branches all over the road and trees down. route in to work blocked this morning !

worst storm for a while up here. typical of met eireann to ignore donegal.

Neddyusa

greenpilot wrote: »

Glasshouse completely destroyed here near knock. Trees down everywhere. Will get pics when it gets bright. Met Eireann completely dropped the ball here. That structure has survived 22 years of storms and was completely flattened last night. A neighbour 1/2 km away called to say some shards of glass hit her house. This rubbish of "met eireann got it right" is completely bull. This will absolutely become apparent as the morning progresses and reports come in.

Totally agree - there are posters saying ME were correct as they stated in the yellow warning that coastal areas could receive higher gusts.
You're nowhere near the coast, and I'm 100km from it and worst storm since Ophelia.
The problem is the crying wolf effect.
We've had several storms orange and red levels over the past two years that were nowhere near as bad as last night's "yellow"

no.8

Storm 10 wrote:

Yesterday Cork was on Orange from early on they had very little impact from Elsa we were on Yellow which is just a bloody gale and well used to them here, our reliable weather posters here were saying yesterday morning the West could go even to Red so what was ME doing Galway City and County Councils were informed one hour before the storm hit no time to close roads and sandbag business premises .What normal person last night would be aware of an Orange warning with one hours notice so we were well caught out with this one.

How do you know that it had very little impact on Cork and the south coast in general? There was a nationwide yellow warning from the night before so there was foresight. The system deepened rapidity so its possible that accurate forecasting wasnt available (similar to a tornado scenario).
It seems that inland areas rarely disturbed by westerlies got wacked last night.

It seems the done thing today to blame somebody else for all and everything.

Gaoth Laidir

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Let me spell this out for you in language you’d understand.

You are happy with how the reporting went last night.

Last night’s reporting was dangerous to some people.

Ergo, to keep people like you happy, others would need to be put into danger.

To keep people out of danger, your input, and people who agree with you, need to be actively resisted from
having any influence whatsoever.

Still nonsense. How has my thinking got anything to do with anything?

I think maybe you're one of those whose only source of news is your Facebook newsfeed. At 10 am yesterdau M.È. put out an update that accurately reflected the latest data and what then actually transpired. This was preceded by two RTE bulletins the night before that blatantly highlighted STORM along the west coast. If you're not able to keep up with that then leave the phone down for a minute and open your eyes and ears.

pjohnson

If yellow was as perfect for Galway as some here are saying why was it changed to orange during the storm?

Is the claim by the MET cheerleaders that orange was wrong?