The Great Big Weather Warning General Debate/Discussion Thread

DOCARCH

This (new) thread is for general debate of the merits and demerits of Met E weather warnings and discussion in relation to same, like, Met E got it right, Met E got it wrong, I have Yellow Warning...should be Red, I have a Red Warning...should be Yellow, etc., etc.

M.T. Cranium

I think it will unfold about as their warnings suggested it would. You can never expect a county-wide warning to verify 100% because of the size of counties and different exposures or even different weather conditions, but people should understand a county being included in red, for example, indicates that criteria for red alert will be expected to verify somewhere in said county during the period of validity.

I am trying to issue alerts and warnings based on specific target areas when feasible but even so, the county by county approach generally works if people blend that with what they can see on a radar screen or satellite image, larger counties like Galway should perhaps be divided into two or even 3-4 sectors, smaller counties work better.

Before anyone suggests forecasts too extreme, keep in mind (posting at 2 pm) worst of storm is expected to be 4 to 9 pm. So it's too early to say if orange or red alerts were justified. Orange already validated in a few places.

Anyway, now we have a post in this thread.

dsmythy

They have been experimenting with adding north west east south into the warning text. If you live in the county the warning should trigger you to read the text and judge how close the action might be to you. Even adding the word coastal before the county should help. Especially for counties like Meath with their little bits of coasts.

aidanodr

Pee'ed off people from SLIGO on NewsTalk / Andrea Gilligan there discussing Storm Isha BUT also flagging Storm Jocelyn .. asking the Q WHY Sligo was not red last night and is not orange tomorrow evening/night. All saying Isha was worst storm they ever experienced in Sligo and with the damage there should have been red and that Joyelyn for Sligo should be orange .. esecially seeming they are between donegal and galway/mayo which again are orange tomorrow evening

.Donegal.

I think the way the met office in the UK do it is better instead of just issuing it on county alone metric. Others will disagree fair enough.

My biggest whinge about M.E is them not including gust speeds any more. For instance, yesterday just about eclipsed red level for gusts. But if another Darwin or 1998 storm came along which far exceeds yesterday’s total you wouldn’t be able to tell that it’s another level extreme storm compared to yesterday. The difference between 130km/h to 170/180km/h is massive but with the current set up you’re none the wiser unless you’re a weather freak.

It’s mind boggling to me why they stopped including that. They did it for as long as I can remember.

Robwindstorm

Brilliant thread for debate Docarch.

I believe there is a new super computer from Iceland coming into action soon which will greatly help met eireann. There is also going to be a new flood forecast division in the coming months so that should improve any rainfall warnings. Despite all these computer models forecasting, it has been noted that they all have been preforming poorly these past few months in a review, maybe its due to abnormal sea temperatures lately.

Anyway, for me , I find the main problem is the wind warnings. I would scrap the land yellow warnings completely and only use them for marine forecasts . Issue orange and red warnings during a named storm using similar boundaries to that of the met office . Give approximate mean and gust speeds but these would not define colour, as a 110km gust in August in the height of tourism season Could be orange, while in winter termed a very windy day. I would utilise the weather Advisory much better by giving advanced notice of possible severe weather and then upgrade or downgrade them as appropriate. Replace these yellow wind warnings with 'very windy' and there might be no cry Wolf situations. That's just my opinion.

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121656896#Comment_121656896

Yellow warnings are handy too for people responsible for planning events. For example, if you're arranging a camping event for a troop of beaver scouts, you might not want to do that in a yellow wind warning, while older scouts could relsh the challenge but would need to do some extra prep

spookwoman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121654404#Comment_121654404

The flood map is very good for the UK, they could do the same with map alerter here. Hope they do the same here when they get it up and running rather than just the randon ico on a big a map that doesn't really defines area's that are at risk

Robwindstorm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121657660#Comment_121657660

I agree with the situation re camping scouts etc but that's where there's a problem with the yellow land warnings. Met eireann are proposing to up the criteria for wind by 5kph to cut down on the number of yellow warnings in particular. However the actual windspeeds in our storms are lower than storms of the 80s and 90s and even these recent storms struggle to hit their forecasted targets as syran's charts show. That's why I think 100kph gusts in August in the middle of camping or other outdoor events, would merit an orange storm warning or at least a weather advisory. The same windspeeds in midwinter with bare trees and less outdoor activities could be considered a very windy day and no need for warnings .