Shannon Radar being replaced.

pauldry

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121952443#Comment_121952443

This App uses a predictive radar type thing but is pretty good. I've been using it all Winter as Met Eireann one isn't really fit for purpose though Netweather does catch a lot of Sligos rain but if I lived in the South I'd be very angry as a weather need. Basically the wettest place in warming climate with NO reliable radar. There should be one in Shannon Cork and Waterford regardless of cost. It's a state necessity.

JCX BXC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121952443#Comment_121952443

Given that Met Eireann's radar sites are the only radar sites, unfortunately yes.

Some websites offer predicted rainfall for the coming hours, however I find that can be annoyingly inaccurate at times.

Jpmarn

I feel blind at the moment near Limerick City to what is coming in the next few hours. It looks like the Shannon Radar failed shortly after 7pm yesterday evening.

Comhrá

One has to wonder about the quality/reliability of this new installation. It's just six months since it became operational. October 12th, 2023 I think.

pauldry

Here's a comparison of all the radars currently. Seems dry to SW luckily so people there not missing much on radar

Comhrá

Submitted a query on Met.ie and got the automated response: They'll try to reply within two weeks. 😖

StormForce13

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121952800#Comment_121952800

Being blunt about it, it's a bloody disgrace.

I would expect whatever Met Eireann forecaster is doing this evening's forecast after the RTE 6 o'clock news to mention this unacceptable failure, apologise for it and give us some indication of how long it is expected to last for.

But there's probably more chance of the Minister responsible for Met Eireann (Eamon Ryan) buying shares in Ryanair!

squonk

well definitely. If you’d bought a car back in October and it was off tge road already and out of action for what now looks like the weekend at least, you’d be fairly pissed. It’s too soon to have a major outage like this on a new installation.

Comhrá

Service resumed shortly after midnight. Must say I was expecting the outage would last over the weekend. Someone was busy.

castor 1

Looks like it was only a very temporary fix

Tow

We paid (at least) 1,125,315 euros for the new radar, you would expect it to last more than a few months.

https://irl.eu-supply.com/ctm/Supplier/PublicTenders/ViewNotice/255827

squonk

it’s not good enough. It should have been fixed asap by the installer as it’s under warranty. It just feels like we’re back where we started already. I’d hoped a brand new radar would be reliable and also better pick up drizzle but neither seem to be coming true.

StormForce13

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121955494#Comment_121955494

Looks as though the project team in charge of building the National Children's Hospital also took charge of the new Shannon Radar project!

finlma

If someone has a connection to a TD it would be good to get a parliamentary question put to the minister about this. Huge waste of tax payers money. Did they buy the radar from Wish? Hopefully they kept the receipt.

This isn't the first time it's been down since the installation either.

aob9

Very amateur attempt at fixing a long standing problem. It's quite embarrassing actually.

lovelyhurler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121953347#Comment_121953347

Eamon Ryan is not the minister responsible for Met - that would be Darrah O'Brien, because of course it makes perfect sense for Met Éireann to be under the remot of the Department of Housing……….🤷‍♂️

dmc17

I can't say I've noticed any improvement in the radar function since it was upgraded. As for reliability it seems just as bad as before. They must've left some of the old infrastructure in place.

Comhrá

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121964528#Comment_121964528

I thought the same. Pure speculation on my part but I wondered if water ingress caused this latest outage?

A bit strange for a supposedly brand-new installation to just break down so soon without some external or pre-existing causative issue?

squonk

I know it’s been very wet here in the west pretty much since the radar went live but, in saying that, Shannon would be a relatively sheltered location compared to Kerry, Galway or even tge more coastal regions of Clare itself. It’s crazy that after all that effort and downtime there isn’t any actual improvement.

pauldry

Theyl fix it during the next dry spell and itl go again the next storm. Its not a huge issue really for most people but with technology and the fact that it's 2024 you'd think the equipment would be better than 1980s standard. In fact the previous radar image on their website before the update was 1,000 times better. Remember the one that had pink and red for heavy rainfall. Now it's downgraded to a worse radar by spending over 1million of our money on it. To soften the blow they told us last October they'd be installing more radars but since then nothing. Probably as with everything in Ireland the cost of installing a new one is like inflation 3 percent "scone effect". Yes the 3 percent inflation scone effect. What's this I hear you ask. Well I've tracked the price of Scones in cannings in Sligo since early last year. The radio says inflation running at 3percent. Scones have gone up in price there in the past 12months from 2.85 last March to 4.15 this March. By December it will be a 5er for Scones or sooner.

What's all this got to do with anything. Well the cost of the upgrade to the Shannon Radar was 1.1million but using the Scone media 3 percent inflation it is now at least 1.75million to upgrade and as long as they leave it the more it goes up so you won't see any new radars in this country anytime soon since the aim of Ireland is to be the world's most expensive country.

Tow

What I cannot understand is the company who got the contract also sell military radar. Homeland Security as they call it. You would assume they know what they are going…

https://www.leonardogermany.com/en/home

At least it has been noticed

secman

A bit ironic that rain causes a fault in a rain radar...... 😀

pauldry

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121966832#Comment_121966832

Ya only in Ireland

"Due to rain we can't detect rain"

squonk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121966743#Comment_121966743

I would say it’s a pretty major issue for at least one third of the country who at present have no useable rainfall radar information and it’s particularly dire for the south west which is bearing a lot of the incoming muck in recent times. I would actually say that decent rainfall radar coverage in the west coast is a priority over eastern areas which would have fallback from uk sources.

pauldry

Ya but it's the West who actually cares about it. Certainly not the Government. Not in my lifetime I'm afraid.

JCX BXC

It is particularly annoying in the west because even the Dublin radar gives very little reliable data this far out.

I've a habit formed of checking the radar when I see clouds about or are expecting rain, before I leave the house. It's more annoying than you'd expect when you try to see when a shower will end but the radar gives nothing!

_Puma_

A country predominantly getting weather fronts from the Atlantic with patchy radar on that side of the country.

Had noticed when the Shannon radar was operating it was displaying heavy rain as lighter so it's not calibrated to the same tune as the other radars either.

Could see on the maps, Met Eireann are only able to give reliable updates when these fronts hit Athlone and they come into range of the other radars and they change colour gradings.

Have noticed a lot of builders and farmers are giving out about bad weather not forecast more frequently.

Forecasting is one thing, but not been able to give accurate updates on fronts as they sweep across the country is another.

pauldry

Current live (ish) radar from sat24 which is the best I can find as an alternative. Anyone any other ideas?

Screenshot_20240403_120858_Chrome.jpg

squonk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121969175#Comment_121969175

that’s for sure. The west coast is the first place hit by any incoming systems and if you’re undertaking any activity, bit work or exercise or just getting out for pleasure, you really have to glance at the radar to check the outlook.

I live in North Clare just south of Galway bay and we get a particular micro climate where we get a lot of low cloud and drizzle. Many times it’s been drizzling heavily outside and not even a speck of rain on the radar. This was something I hoped the new radar would address but no such luck.

Oscar Bravo

Shannon radar outage update:

The Shannon radar is offline due to a hardware fault. Since Thursday evening, our staff have been working with radar manufacturer engineers to resolve the issue.

We are conscious of the importance of this service to the public, so please be assured that we are doing all we can to restore it is as quickly as possible.