Are there too many weather warnings?

Conelan · 01-03-2018 9:34am

greenpilot wrote: »

Red warning for the west not warranted. No snow here yet schools now jumped at the opportunity to close. Just back in from walking dog. Bit cold, bit windy, usual stuff. Now need to find babysitters as work has remained opened. Completely overhyped. Ballaghaderreen area.

Just to let you know schools don't jump at the opportunity. There is a national directive in place that if your area is declared Red Alert the school closes, it's very simple really

PLL · 01-03-2018 9:34am

dharma200 wrote: »

Galway city is so dangerous I cant even tell you.

Particularly when you live on a steep hill and don't fancy sliding down it, nevermind attempting to get back up.

greenpilot · 01-03-2018 9:39am

Radharc na Sleibhte wrote: »

It’s madness. Schools and businesses now are gonna close in Sligo, Mayo, Donegal today? For what exactly? Freezing cold and the very very feint possibility of a tiny bit of snow or hail here? High winds, freezing temperatures and snow are not a new phenomenon in the north west...!!!

Red warning, there has been a hail shower in Glenties. Please everybody stay indoors.

They need to adjust these red warnings, either the parameters for issuing or something, particularly now with what comes (shutdown) as a result of them being issued. And yes “people could die, just because it wasn’t bad in your area” etc etc..... But that’s exactly the point. They have issued a general nationwide red warning again when there is absolutely no need to do so again. Red warnings must be reserved for definitive specific chaos/danger/threat to life in a definitive area. They should up the parameters of orange or create an amber warning and save red for “get in your bunker”. Maybe we are just more weather hardy on the Atlantic coast but two days now sitting around and looking out the window at the same weather we always get, I don’t know.

Completely agree, No snow here from Roscommon northwards towards Donegal. usual conditions for this time of the year. Public asked to stay indoors from 4pm? Seriously.? As other posters have mentioned in these areas, the weather was worse two weeks ago. Staff are now calling work and giving the excuse of the red warning not to go in, yet the roads are completely clear. My boss will not close work as the roads are fine. Red warnings should have been confined to the worse counties.
I appreciate that things are extremely dangerous for the rest of the country, but further west, the red warning is a joke. especially today.

firemansam4 · 01-03-2018 9:40am

Not sure why Met Eireann have issued a nationwide red alert, it seems to be completely unnecessary for counties that are not being badly effected by this weather. Here where I am in Donegal there is hardly a flake of snow outside, and from looking at most the models it seems that the snow from Fridays storm will not reach the northern parts of this country bar maybe a few flurry's.
An orange warning should have stayed in place for some areas that will not be badly affected. Seems like a complete over reaction from Met Eireann.

_Dara_ · 01-03-2018 9:42am

Blizzards are forecast. When did you last experience a blizzard in Ireland?

The warning concerns the afternoon onwards, not now. Why are you talking about current conditions? People could get stranded later if they venture out to work now. Why is this so difficult to grasp?

And it’s a storm so there is a degree of uncertainty about where will be worst affected. They need to be cautious. If lives were cost, they’d be blamed.

Gaoth Laidir · 01-03-2018 9:43am

beefburrito wrote: »

Check out Lahinch

http://www.lahinchsurfshop.com/lahinch-web-cam-271257cm1.html

It's not overhyped

Looks lovely there

Speak Now · 01-03-2018 9:45am

firemansam4 wrote: »

Not sure why Met Eireann have issued a nationwide red alert, it seems to be completely unnecessary for counties that are not being badly effected by this weather. Here where I am in Donegal there is hardly a flake of snow outside, and from looking at most the models it seems that the snow from Fridays storm will not reach the northern parts of this country bar maybe a few flurry's.
An orange warning should have stayed in place for some areas that will not be badly affected. Seems like a complete over reaction from Met Eireann.

The models are at conflict about how far north Emma will get.

No matter what the weather or the warning colours they will never get it 100% right.

It's just the nature of the beast (weather)

ixus · 01-03-2018 9:46am

firemansam4 wrote: »

Not sure why Met Eireann have issued a nationwide red alert, it seems to be completely unnecessary for counties that are not being badly effected by this weather. Here where I am in Donegal there is hardly a flake of snow outside, and from looking at most the models it seems that the snow from Fridays storm will not reach the northern parts of this country bar maybe a few flurry's.
An orange warning should have stayed in place for some areas that will not be badly affected. Seems like a complete over reaction from Met Eireann.

Well, if fireman Sam thinks it's ok...but you have to watch out for Norman. He's always up to divilment.

mobil 222 · 01-03-2018 9:48am

firemansam4 wrote: »

Not sure why Met Eireann have issued a nationwide red alert, it seems to be completely unnecessary for counties that are not being badly effected by this weather. Here where I am in Donegal there is hardly a flake of snow outside, and from looking at most the models it seems that the snow from Fridays storm will not reach the northern parts of this country bar maybe a few flurry's.
An orange warning should have stayed in place for some areas that will not be badly affected. Seems like a complete over reaction from Met Eireann.

The problem is that Sligo has been in the same boat.
We have hardly seen any snow,just very cold dry days.
But not so this morning,it has been snowing for the past hour and sticking.
So very hard to predict

Gaoth Laidir · 01-03-2018 9:48am

Conelan wrote: »

Just to let you know schools don't jump at the opportunity. There is a national directive in place that if your area is declared Red Alert the school closes, it's very simple really

No, it's still up to schools. The school transport will not run, but there is not a directive stating schools MUST close.

firemansam4 · 01-03-2018 9:59am

Speak Now wrote: »

The models are at conflict about how far north Emma will get.

No matter what the weather or the warning colours they will never get it 100% right.

It's just the nature of the beast (weather)

I can understand that, iv'e been looking at some of the models and there still seems to be quite a lot of divergence in them.
The severe snow is looking very unlikely to reach many places in the north west according to most the models, and I still think an orange warning would have sufficed in these areas until such time that a red warning will actually be warranted.

There are many schools shut unnecessarily today in my opinion.

mirrorwall14 · 01-03-2018 10:04am

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

No, it's still up to schools. The school transport will not run, but there is not a directive stating schools MUST close.

Actually it’s not if the department come out and specify which is what has happened here https://www.education.ie/en/Press-Events/Press-Releases/2018-press-releases/PR18-02-28.html

glack · 01-03-2018 10:07am

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

No, it's still up to schools. The school transport will not run, but there is not a directive stating schools MUST close.

The Minister has ordered all schools to close!https://twitter.com/richardbrutontd/status/968995784711696385?s=21

jdcv94 · 01-03-2018 10:13am

I was a bit confused when Wexford was upgraded to level 3 for overnight accumulations last night.

It's been (really painfully) obvious for us that the streamers were coming from a corridor inbetween the IOM and Angelsey. The fetch was not long enough from here to the Welsh coast for any significant snowfall streamers to build. There isn't even 1cm of snow on the ground here and I am 150m asl. It's extremely icy but I think most of the country is at the moment. Snowfall has been few and far between (although it is kinda heavy as I type).

Now later on the snowfall is due from the south so we need the red alert, it's just yesterday I could not see why ME upgraded us so early.

facehugger99 · 01-03-2018 10:36am

The 'better safe than sorry' mindset that infests all our public institutions will ensure that exaggerated and over-hyped of weather warnings are likely to remain a feature of Irish life.

Advising people to stay indoors between 4pm today and 12pm tomorrow? Despite a good chunk of the country remaining largely unaffected? It's the nanny-state at its finest.

Of course the teachers couldn't wait to close the schools and inconvenience thousands of parents. No surprises there.

BarryD2 · 01-03-2018 10:38am

firemansam4 wrote: »

Not sure why Met Eireann have issued a nationwide red alert, it seems to be completely unnecessary for counties that are not being badly effected by this weather.

It's far too coarse a model. Their problem is borders - they announce a RED alert for Leinster and a lesser one elsewhere, then people living in peripheral counties to Leinster are confused - 'should I go to work, should I not? The local conditions are the same here as over the hill in the RED county' etc etc.

So ME have to extend their warning and that creates more confusion... until eventually they realise they may as well lump the whole country into the one RED warning. Same happened with the windy spell there a while back.

We live in Carlow but if I rolled a stone down the hill, it'd end up in Wicklow. Yesterday DUBLIN and Wicklow were RED but Carlow some other colour. But I hear some Dublin residents complaining they'd no or little snow, whilst our local Carlow roads were covered..

So as a system, this colour coded thing is OK for VERY SERIOUS weather events but in the general scheme of things, it's too coarse, borders cause confusion and it just tends to put the frighteners on those who are inclined to be worried about such matters.

road_high · 01-03-2018 10:41am

facehugger99 wrote: »

The 'better safe than sorry' mindset that infests all our public institutions will ensure that exaggerated and over-hyped of weather warnings are likely to remain a feature of Irish life.

Advising people to stay indoors between 4pm today and 12pm tomorrow? Despite a good chunk of the country remaining largely unaffected? It's the nanny-state at its finest.

Of course the teachers couldn't wait to close the schools and inconvenience thousands of parents. No surprises there.

When I was in primary school 20+ years ago, you listened intently to the local radio to check if your school was open. Invariably ours was as it was in a low lying town that didn't get the snow as bad. You got on with it and accepted it as a feature of life for a day or two. If it was really bad then the school closed. This decision was (sensibly) made on a local basis- there was no social media for people to rant and rave about the government.

Akrasia · 01-03-2018 10:42am

jdcv94 wrote: »

I was a bit confused when Wexford was upgraded to level 3 for overnight accumulations last night.

It's been (really painfully) obvious for us that the streamers were coming from a corridor inbetween the IOM and Angelsey. The fetch was not long enough from here to the Welsh coast for any significant snowfall streamers to build. There isn't even 1cm of snow on the ground here and I am 150m asl. It's extremely icy but I think most of the country is at the moment. Snowfall has been few and far between (although it is kinda heavy as I type).

Now later on the snowfall is due from the south so we need the red alert, it's just yesterday I could not see why ME upgraded us so early.

So you agree that a red alert is justified for your location, just that it was too early?

Do you not think that its better to issue one before people go to work rather than in the middle of the day and leave people stranded?

BarryD2 · 01-03-2018 10:43am

facehugger99 wrote: »

The 'better safe than sorry' mindset that infests all our public institutions will ensure that exaggerated and over-hyped of weather warnings are likely to remain a feature of Irish life..

Agreed, it's one thing advising people that they might be best for their own comfort to stay indoors but Minister Eoin Murphy has been practically telling everyone not to move.

There are many people who are fit, able, well equipped and able to be outdoors if they so wish to. People should feel free to make their own decisions and take responsibility for themselves. Rather than be subject to excoriating comment on social media led by a nanny state mindset.

jdcv94 · 01-03-2018 10:49am

Akrasia wrote: »

So you agree that a red alert is justified for your location, just that it was too early?

Do you not think that its better to issue one before people go to work rather than in the middle of the day and leave people stranded?

Yeah now you put it like that it was probably justified. Every chart I see has the SE getting a direct blast from the storm later. I'm just bitter we didn't see any real accumulations the past few nights

.

PhlegmyMoses · 01-03-2018 10:50am

BarryD2 wrote: »

Agreed, it's one thing advising people that they might be best for their own comfort to stay indoors but Minister Eoin Murphy has been practically telling everyone not to move.

There are many people who are fit, able, well equipped and able to be outdoors if they so wish to. People should feel free to make their own decisions and take responsibility for themselves. Rather than be subject to excoriating comment on social media led by a nanny state mindset.

They literally are free to make their own decisions. If they are worried about what somebody on social media says about them, they have bigger problems.

I get that the West hasn't been hit as badly, and they may need to review how they do these types of warnings, it's possibly a fair criticism. But the government warnings are exactly that, warnings. They are not laws and they do not impinge on your persoanl freedom one iota.

coffee_cake · 01-03-2018 10:50am

BarryD2 wrote: »

Agreed, it's one thing advising people that they might be best for their own comfort to stay indoors but Minister Eoin Murphy has been practically telling everyone not to move.

There are many people who are fit, able, well equipped and able to be outdoors if they so wish to. People should feel free to make their own decisions and take responsibility for themselves. Rather than be subject to excoriating comment on social media led by a nanny state mindset.

I don't think they do take responsibility for themselves, didn't some eejits have to be rescued from surfing during ophelia

RobbingBandit · 01-03-2018 10:57am

It usually takes someone dying for the masses to take situations like this seriously freak weather like this are usually very seldom occurrences thankfully hope everyone stays safe later as that second front is gonna be trouble.

Skedaddle · 01-03-2018 10:59am

The problem is that you have to make a decision somehow.

Let's say you don't close the schools and a school in a sheltered area stays open. Or a very pushy manager decides to open their business regardless.

People drive to those places as students (parents of), as teachers and as employees. The problem then is you end up with cars stranded in snow or accidents that could have been totally avoided by a warning.

The only thing I would say is that Met Éireann, while they have the facts are often very poor at communication. Their website is in need of a total revamp and should be able to give far clearer access to information than it is.

Also things like the Cork City Council alert service was great when it lsunched. Then it started just parroting every nationally issued Met Éireann alert. I was getting messages that were relevent to places that were nowhere near Cork and they started to become so frequent that they became annoying and unsubscribed.

You need services to be able to give very specific information.

A really great example is ESB's power check system. That's probably saving them thousand of phonecalls and it's very useful to be able to visually see what's going on.

Maybe the state could work on using open, free tools and APIs and let developers and commercial services like Google maps integrate as much emergency information as possible. You could end up with some very cool apps and without much cost for the state at all.

RobbingBandit · 01-03-2018 11:03am

Sad thing for some businesses are they could be on the brink 2/3 days of lost productivity at a slow period like this time of year could mean closure or layoffs.

BarryD2 · 01-03-2018 11:04am

bluewolf wrote: »

I don't think they do take responsibility for themselves, didn't some eejits have to be rescued from surfing during ophelia

Nope, someone who was in a tizzy on the shore, what with all the warnings - got concerned when they saw the lads out on the water. So they phoned the emergency services and the media got to hear of it and jumped on the proverbial bandwagon, all over the story.

As the lads explained afterwards, they knew quite well what they doing and were in full control of their situation. Said person who reported might have thought they were doing their public duty but really they should have minded their own business.

Agree though that idiots who drive up in cars to the hills to view the snow, should be left there and let them make their own way down. They'd suffer a bit but sure what harm, that's how you learn.

BarryD2 · 01-03-2018 11:08am

PhlegmyMoses wrote: »

They literally are free to make their own decisions.

That's not the message the authorities and media are promulgating. You watch what happens if anyone does get in a spot of bother or is thought to be in a spot of bother. They'll be condemned all round and held up in the public stocks by the media keen to get a few sales and clicks.

Try_harder · 01-03-2018 11:08am

BarryD2 wrote: »

facehugger99 wrote: »

The 'better safe than sorry' mindset that infests all our public institutions will ensure that exaggerated and over-hyped of weather warnings are likely to remain a feature of Irish life..

Agreed, it's one thing advising people that they might be best for their own comfort to stay indoors but Minister Eoin Murphy has been practically telling everyone not to move.

There are many people who are fit, able, well equipped and able to be outdoors if they so wish to. People should feel free to make their own decisions and take responsibility for themselves. Rather than be subject to excoriating comment on social media led by a nanny state mindset.

No. Everyone thinks they are fit and able.

Reminds me of the family’s reaction to the inquest to their son/brothers death following Storm Ophelia- they didn’t know they had to stay indoors and not drive around!!! It was a CODE RED- the country was SHUT DOWN

people who unnecessarily go out in these conditions are not only putting their own lives at risk, but the lives of others also, that is unacceptable

coillsaille · 01-03-2018 11:16am

facehugger99 wrote: »

Of course the teachers couldn't wait to close the schools and inconvenience thousands of parents. No surprises there.

Sorry but this is complete horseshît. Teachers are merely employees and have no role in deciding whether to close or open schools. Boards of management of schools have that role along with the Dept of Education. In this case it was the Department and Minister Bruton that announced schools would not open.

But feel free to jump at any opportunity to bash the teachers.

01-03-2018 11:18am

Try_harder wrote: »

No. Everyone thinks they are fit and able.

Reminds me of the family’s reaction to the inquest to their son/brothers death following Storm Ophelia- they didn’t know they had to stay indoors and not drive around!!! It was a CODE RED- the country was SHUT DOWN

people who unnecessarily go out in these conditions are not only putting their own lives at risk, but the lives of others also, that is unacceptable

You should take a trip to the running forum. Apparently footpaths are perfectly safe in the current conditions.

Are there too many weather warnings?

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