Storm Debi : Mon 13th Nov 2023

antimatterx

Bit of a non event in Dublin. Heavy wind, but a bit over the top to delay schools, and public transport.

Better safe than sorry though.

aidanodr

@xper "On a more general observation, I have to say that the usual non event whinging following weather events is utterly tedious. Its as bad as the VAR merry-go-round on football punditry."

I have to protest @xper ... its DAMP SQUID. dont forget the damp squid, get it right :D

aidanodr

Ranelagh Dublin

https://twitter.com/Mick_Dunne_/status/1724020289774780686

archfi

Very tall tree just fell beside me into a bunch of other very tall trees. I can see the base of the trunk where it snapped.

Dublin 12.

HazeDoll

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121360114#Comment_121360114

I came back to this thread and combed through it until I found the traditional reference to a moist cephalopod.

GHendrix

The frustrating thing is that a red warning is called and finishes at 9am. For most of the east at least, it seems like the criteria for Red wasn’t met, not even close.

Then you have schools and crèches making the decision to close all day!

A few weeks from now we’ll probably have the same weather and a yellow warning and everyone will carry on as normal.

Elmer Blooker

80,000 properties without power according to RTE, that’s a big storm ….. end of story

GhostyMcGhost

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121362211#Comment_121362211

Look up, 3 posts above you

YOU didn’t experience a red weather event so nobody in the east of the country did?

What crèches closed for the day? They’re were only closed until 10/11

Macy0161

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121362211#Comment_121362211

They said they weren't opening until 10 under the orange warning, before it went red. As someone who had to take time out of work to drop mine to school for 10(ish), I'm happy they weren't waiting for, and then on the bus at 7.30 this morning. Even if it has been a pain.

Essentially it seems to be that school, creche and transport workers are expected to go out in a red warning to prepare for the rest of the pop to be ready to go as soon as the warning is dropped? And with no consideration for the aftermath - if a school or creche has no power they seem to be expected to open?

Stormyhead

Local creche not opening today. In Sligo. Owner has cited 'dangerous conditions'. A few gale force gusts earlier and a spell of heavy rain. Ridixulous carry on. Facilitated by the media and Met E who have everyone hyped.

finlma

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121362211#Comment_121362211

From 4am-5am was the windiest I've ever experienced in Galway. There are walls and trees down everywhere and plenty of flooding. It was clearly a red warning.

ME are using weather modelling to predict the future - it's inherently difficult or next to impossible to get it correct. They are far better erring on the side of caution.

Just because your little area didn't get the worst of it doesn't mean that warnings weren't merited.

aidanodr

Re "This is what Met Éireann has to say about the yellow, orange, and red weather warnings." .. Over at All things MET Eireann thread. EXAMINER Explainer article

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121362266/#Comment_121362266

Macy0161

Whatever about schools, you're free to take your creche business elsewhere.

bucketybuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121362078#Comment_121362078

But there is a bearing.

People have to respect warnings and advice from those in charge. If they keep looking back, again and again, at shutdowns/red warnings that in retrospect were not warranted then they are going to lose all respect for warnings in the future.

There are now a lot of examples of Ireland becoming incredibly risk averse and there is likely to be a reaction to that in the coming years.

aidanodr

Storm Debi GALWAY

https://twitter.com/CarlowWeather/status/1724027905586430270

HazeDoll

Where I live, in a shallow but steep-sided valley, the direction of the wind is a huge factor. I suspect this is also the case for lots of people in urban areas. For me, strong north-westerly winds don't have any real impact whereas a less violent sustained south-westerly will really churn the place up, take slates off the roof and probably take branches down. There are people who live within a few kilometers of my house whose experience might be the complete opposite.

Luckily I'm a cast iron genius and I understand that the weather forecast is the experts' best guess for the weather in my general area and not their holy ordained prophesy for what will happen in the sky above my roof and my roof alone.

RoisinD

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121362226#Comment_121362226

Many of those (over 5000) flagged early on in my small area of North/West Clare were rectified pretty quickly. Many would have not even realised there had been a power cut. Well done the ESB. No waiting days as it used to be.

I have read one or two references to Debi being intense for those who don't have much experience of storms. Not true. We regularly get the brunt of all the Atlantic throws at us and this was up there. The major difference being Debi didn't hang around. Thankfully, she moved on quickly.

RobertKK

There will be plenty of firewood for the winter after the storm.

Peter Flynt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121362275#Comment_121362275

You're also free to educate your own kids at home.

No one is forcing you to send them to a school.

OldRio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121362393#Comment_121362393

Not this winter.

MrDerp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121362316#Comment_121362316

Exactly this point. I've had stuff flying around my Cork City garden during an Advisory/Yellow, but during Ophelia: it wasn't as bad in my garden (though I could hear a roar of the wind overhead, nothing was slamming the house), and within 1km of my home several old trees had been ripped from the ground and there was tarmac pulled up etc around them.

Like politics, all weather is local. I was massively inconvenienced this morning by a school run, all the associated traffic, but I'd rather that any day then get a call to say a branch had landed on my daughter's school transport.

Gerry Murphy of Met Eireann was on Newstalk just now discussing the criteria for warning and the role of weather numerical prediction models in forecasting. Quite informative.

Jpmarn

Here is a Big Jet TV Storm Debi special from London Heathrow Airport. https://www.youtube.com/live/uh-lrx8mFUE?si=v6kybqPUOrlDHm75

Mapaputsi

Spent the morning here in Oranmore Galway helping neighbours find their bins that were blown 500 meters down the road into hedges. It was as wild as I've ever heard. Took a peek out the window at about 4am and saw one of them autumn door wreaths fly past our house at a ferocious speed.

Anyone gets caught in the path of that or other debris and they are seriously injured or killed. I'm happy with it being flagged as a red here but understand the frustration further inland.

snowstreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121362561#Comment_121362561

Im glad it was a red here in Athenry too. I know the Athenry weather station only recorded 115kmph but that was its station record. So even during all the other previous red storms like Ophelia etc it still didnt reach 115kmph. So maybe it could be said that you need to add 15kmph to Athenrys gusts because it is so sheltered.

The amount of sea wall damage in Oranmore seems to be unprecedented too but that could be have been due to timing with the high tide.

_Puma_

County boundary wind warnings is unworkable for storms (maybe they are more appropriate for rain and flooding)

ME forecasted the track of this storm and the wind gradients well. I think a Map based warning system is more suitable for wind events like this and let the media figure out how to communicate this themselves. I know I end up looking the model runs rather than listening to the press releases.

One look at the model output overlayed over the country a few hours before is more useful than all the press releases and and County warnings the press and government releases.

Looking at it last night it was clear we were getting a direct hit in Galway and it was tracking north of Dublin

plasterman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121362631#Comment_121362631

Storms cover large areas and counties are small. They're also sparsely populated outside of Dublin. If you catch a few extra people in a red warning it's not a big deal. It would take a very long time to communicate the areas affected.

dsmythy

'Better safe than sorry' has its cost too. One part of the population will respect the idea while the other part, with each 'just incase' warning, will ignore it when the big one comes and lives will be lost. More over a 10 year period? The same? Or less? I don't know.

Predict the wind speeds, consider the context and give the appropriate warning for what you consider the most likely scenario. And that's what I presume was done in this storm.

You can understand the reasoning behind a warning while also realising afterwards it didn't quite pan out that way and learning accordingly from the data the storm has provided in its brief existence.

A tree could fall over in a yellow wind warning situation but it doesn't mean everything stops and it doesn't mean the warning was incorrect.

SharkMX

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121361925#Comment_121361925

I came in this morning into Dublin on a flight that had to have a couple of goes at the landing. It was the roughest ive ever been on a plane. A lot of people were saying their prayers. Its put me right off flying.

Rikand

One part of the population will respect the idea while the other part, with each 'just incase' warning, will ignore it when the big one comes and lives will be lost.

To put it bluntly, that will be their own stupid fault.