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Are there too many weather warnings?

Mikewalsh

I saw another warning today for rain and wind no less

Shouldn't met eireann hold off on the warnings for the more extreme events

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nagdefy

Harry Palmr wrote: »

No competent farmer is going to get caught out by Irish weather.

I wouldn't agree at all. Slight changes in rainfall amount, wind direction and speed have to be closely followed.

Not to mention in the summer if you're chasing someone for silage or baling hay a few hours one way or another for a dry spell to end can be curtains esp. in marginal land. Also -4C is our threshold for certain ballcocks to freeze in sheds.

Many's a time you'd be ringing a contractor due to come at 4pm on a Friday urging him to come earlier as that spell of rain was now forecast to come at noon. This could be on a Thursday evening and he has a list of people to go to and your trying to fight your corner to get higher up the list!

A break in weather where i am and some ground mightn't be traficable for 2 months.

Nothing wrong with the warnings at all. As i said before, getting slurry out before 25mm of rain makes ground too heavy to travel and your tank is flowing over and polluting.

25mm is normal winter rainfall but can make a huge difference to certain people in different scenarios.

Harry Palmr

Elmer Blooker wrote: »

I think temperatures as low as -6c might justify a weather warning. It may be all very well living in a centrally heated, double glazed house in an urban area but some farmhouses are old and may not be well insulated and precautions against frozen pipes would have to be taken. There are also farm animals that have to be taken into consideration, we don't live in North America and -6c is cold for this country!

No competent farmer is going to get caught out by Irish weather.

Elmer Blooker

I think temperatures as low as -6c might justify a weather warning. It may be all very well living in a centrally heated, double glazed house in an urban area but some farmhouses are old and may not be well insulated and precautions against frozen pipes would have to be taken. There are also farm animals that have to be taken into consideration, we don't live in North America and -6c is cold for this country!

Billgirlylegs

appledrop wrote: »

Brilliant that's exactly how ridiculous it is! So I drive on a lot of back roads into work which can be very dangerous with black ice. They were grand this morning. Yes it was -2 but newsflash its Jan in Ireland. A total joke. I wonder how I survived the winter of 2010 without the weather warnings.

I can see both sides of this.
However, the Met Service's job is to record "the weather", predict what is going to happen, and inform the public.
Weather forecasts have been part of broadcasting as long as I can remember, and all they are doing now is using different, simpler terminology.
How many times have we heard "there was no warning" after windy / icy / rainy / snowy episodes.
Remember Ophelia - unpredictable path of a pretty destructive force. The areas in the path were glad of the warning, and other areas were wondering what all the fuss was about.

appledrop

GhostyMcGhost wrote: »

National Warnings ⚠️
STATUS ORANGE

It’s winter. Cold, frosty weather expected with scattered showers

Issued
Annually

Valid From
Nov 1st to Feb 1st

Brilliant that's exactly how ridiculous it is! So I drive on a lot of back roads into work which can be very dangerous with black ice. They were grand this morning. Yes it was -2 but newsflash its Jan in Ireland. A total joke. I wonder how I survived the winter of 2010 without the weather warnings.

GhostyMcGhost

National Warnings ⚠️
STATUS ORANGE

It’s winter. Cold, frosty weather expected with scattered showers

Issued
Annually

Valid From
Nov 1st to Feb 1st

Gaoth Laidir

The orange for -6 tonight is a bit farcical when we already had -6 this morning without a yellow. They had forecast down to -5 and we got -5.5. Pretty much the same forecast again tonight but this time it's an orange.

All that stuff about issuing warnings based on impact rather than numerical criteria but there is no difference at all between a forecast -5 and -6 when we're talking just dry frosty conditions.

I honestly think the whole coloured warning system should be abolished and go back to the original modus operandi of issuing Gale Warnings and clear forecasts of severe frost, extremely cold, etc. The only problem with that is people don't read forecasts, or worse, read them incorrectly.

appledrop

It's an absolute joke at this stage. Basically every day since Christmas there has been a weather warning. FFS it's winter in Ireland. Guess what there is going to be some wind, rain + frost. We are an island in the Atlantic. The weather is no different than it has ever been but it is being hyped over the top.

Harry Palmr

I was boggled that a yellow warning was in place when I woke and heard the weather at 10 am this morning, the frost went with the sun. Ludicrous and likely to create a view they are worthless.

ZX7R

drunkmonkey wrote: »

There at it again Orange warning for tonight -4 to -6 tonight. Completely OTT.
Does it even deserve any warning bar a notice that's it's going to be very cold, drive carefully and wrap up well.

Down to -11 in the UK and no warnings.

UK have 3 different yellow warnings for 3 different areas tonight.
Maybe not orange but still weather warnings none the less

pistolpetes11

drunkmonkey wrote: »

There at it again Orange warning for tonight -4 to -6 tonight. Completely OTT.
Does it even deserve any warning bar a notice that's it's going to be very cold, drive carefully and wrap up well.

Down to -11 in the UK and no warnings.

There not at it again as you put it , there is criteria to be reached and the temps expected over night have surpassed that criteria .

Obviously the warning levels need to be looked at it again but it’s not someone sitting up in Glasnevin saying sure we will bang out a weather warning for the Craic .

drunkmonkey

There at it again Orange warning for tonight -4 to -6 tonight. Completely OTT.
Does it even deserve any warning bar a notice that's it's going to be very cold, drive carefully and wrap up well.

Down to -11 in the UK and no warnings.

CeilingFly

It's not that there are too many warnings. Its the hysterical sensationalist media, especially the indo that creates a yellow warning into a wild hysterical headline.

Yellow is a good one to know for those outside a lot, but for many its just "bad weather"

Problem is the hysterical indo creates a sensationalist headline which doesn't match the event. Then when there is a valid event, with a orange/red warning, people don't pay enough attention because the media cried wolf too many times.

So if the media respected the severity levels of the warnings, it would make the public better aware.

Macy0161

I think its a no win for met eireann. Don't issue the warning early enough (as in Darwin) they are criticised, take a more cautious approach as with Ophelia they are also criticised - even though we don't know what the impact would've been without the red/ shut down. Plenty of damage in Wicklow, given the subsequent commentary that the east shouldn't have been in the warning.

Like so many aspects of life at the moment, a significant proportion of the population take no personal responsibility. A forecast is a forecast, and a little bit of education (without having to understand the science) can tell you that small changes can make big differences. So large numbers take no responsibility to reading/ listening to nuances of a forecast, but feel qualified or entitled to criticise with hindsight!

pc7

Its a hard one for them in fairness but it really feels to me (non weather expert) that there are just too many named storms and that. It makes me immune to them and a tendency to switch off. Just say it'll be wet, windy, strong gusts or that, but giving a little breeze a name just downplays a more serious storm. Again this is from a lay person, I'm sure I'm not alone in this.

Nettle Soup

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

The orange warning always included south Galway and mentioned coastal flooding, so the city, Salthill, etc., should have been better prepared, whatever about the north of the county.

EDIT: Not sure why a thumbs-down appeared in my post...

Yeah I agree and I think the warnings were sufficient but it was still record flooding. People just seem complacent now wrt to the warning colours especially just after Christmas and Ophelia. You should see how angry the River Corrib is today too.

There is no stopping the flooding on the Prom, we need to just get used to it. I have seen the Prom flooding many times before with much more cars in the 2 main car parks. I did hear a rumour years ago that people park their cars on purpose in those cars parks for a high tide with wind surge.

Gaoth Laidir

Nettle Soup wrote: »

People in Galway certainly ignored yesterday's Orange warning. I guess Ophelia was Red and didn't really register in Galway so people are now complacent.
It's a tricky one. Besides yesterday was a "perfect storm" in terms of flooding (very high tide, westerly gales, high rainfall). The areas that did flood are prone to flooding so people cannot be too surprised. The speed of the flooding was what caught people off guard.
That said, I saw people playing soccer last night in Galway during heavy hailstones when the storm centre had passed.

The orange warning always included south Galway and mentioned coastal flooding, so the city, Salthill, etc., should have been better prepared, whatever about the north of the county.

EDIT: Not sure why a thumbs-down appeared in my post...

Nettle Soup

People in Galway certainly ignored yesterday's Orange warning. I guess Ophelia was Red and didn't really register in Galway so people are now complacent.
It's a tricky one. Besides yesterday was a "perfect storm" in terms of flooding (very high tide, westerly gales, high rainfall). The areas that did flood are prone to flooding so people cannot be too surprised. The speed of the flooding was what caught people off guard.
That said, I saw people playing soccer last night in Galway during heavy hailstones when the storm centre had passed.

squarecircles

I think the problem is there's too much weather,someone should really send it a weather warning.

OldRio

Well we in Leitrim were given no advanced warning of the storm and the damage was substantial.
Trees down. Fencing damaged. Roof damaged. Electric off. Debris on roads.
Worse storm in years and no warning.

Oneiric 3

By Storm 10 on the now locked thread:

"People were on local radio in Galway this morning giving out about the ME warnings and the Councils warnings, South Galway was a bit crazy to be honest, if you are in Galway City well across the Bay is Co Clare, then head a bit East then South towards Gort etc you are still in South Galway, so given that they should never have used that term "South Galway" , then we had the City Council who issued a warning about flooding at 7pm when it had already happened, you could not make this up".

West Galway, or even 'Connemara' would have been more apt in the warning, but when all is said and done, gust speeds were not that impressive in the north and east of the county, so in this respect, the Met were spot on.

jimbobaloobob

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Crèches and schools are getting away with murder on the back of these ott warnings.

not sure i know what murder they are getting away with because of these warnings. Were they not just closed for two days last year because of Storm Ophelia?

drunkmonkey

Think the yellow, orange, red has had its day. Basically of the opinion now after all this years warnings secure the wheelie bin in a red if it's not full, everything else ignore. Crèches and schools are getting away with murder on the back of these ott warnings.

Should be a scale from 1 to 10 with the current orange being a 3 and considered normal for this time of year.
I'm expecting a little wind in the afternoon tomorrow so will avoid walking in the woods. Expecting some rain as well but this is Ireland, do we really need a rain warning.

dQuetour

Maybe I'm wrong but I fall into the warning jaundiced camp, particularly in relation to wind, maybe it's the colours. My elderly father was quite worried by all the talk surrounding Dylan, the then projected maximum gusts were I believe 110kph. Told him not to worry as it wouldn't be anything special for our area, we have had some 120kph storms through here in recent years and there hasn't been much if any damage from them. I secured any empty buckets and barrels about the farm, and that's as much as I did. After the even the most damage I saw was a spindly branch of a furze bush pushed out from a fence line. Hindsight is a grand thing but to be honest the wind warnings didn't factor into my daily life before Dylan arrived either.

piuswal

jimbobaloobob wrote: »

Is it not done to fall in line with how weather is presented across Europe?

http://www.meteoalarm.eu/

jimbobaloobob

Is it not done to fall in line with how weather is presented across Europe?

power pants

Yes it's ridiculous at this stage. Anything that isn't dull, grey and overcast merits a weather warning

Surely just stating what the weather is going to be Eg very windy etc is enough?

By placing warning at the front it will eventually lose any impact to the people reading

When a genuine warning is merited it will be lost on many due to all the over hyped warnings we receive weekly

Reading a forecast that just simply states the severity of the weather is sufficient until it's a genuine case

Lissavane

Oneiric 3 wrote: »

Probably one of the least hilly regions in the entire country:

An orange warning for gusts of 125 km over the entire Connacht region is unrealistic in my opinion. Perhaps I will be proved wrong, In fact I sincerely hope I am.

The concept of issuing warnings based on counties is entirely inappropriate for wind especially. A warning for all of Connaught as described above is meaningless and brings Met Eireann into disrepute when it doesn't happen.

Wind force within County Mayo varies enormously from Belmullet to Claremorris and within County Galway from Mace Head to Athenry.

The boy who cried wolf syndrome has set in already. Sometime there will be a serious weather event and Met Eireann will be ignored.

nagdefy

"A piggery roof doesn't have leaves on it so wind at any time of the year is likely to have removed it. The wind received in Laois that day is most likely less than that received several other times of the year, so it was probably the roof's time to go."

No Gaoth Laidir certain parts of Laois experienced very severe winds that day. Sorry a fire was started by an electrical fault in the storm. Sorry for my mis info. I was confusing it with a mini tornado in the area a few yrs back.

Abbeyleix area had many trees down. Severe weather was experienced in Ophelia as far north as Portlaoise. Some people want to create a narrative that Met Eireann's warning went way too far. They were blamed for not going far enough in Feb 2014.

mickmackey1

George Sunsnow wrote: »

Yawn
There’s a whole thread on Ophelia’s red warning and an overwhelming opinion shared by me given and respectively disagreed with by a few without an outbreak of it here derailing this one

I'll need to read that a few more times before getting to grips with its Joycean complexity :P