Severe Wind Storm late 26th-27th December

From Met eireann site.

Weather Warnings are presented in three categories:

STATUS YELLOW - Weather Alert - Be Aware

The concept behind YELLOW level weather alerts is to notify those who are at risk because of their location and/or activity, and to allow them to take preventative action. It is implicit that YELLOW level weather alerts are for weather conditions that do not pose an immediate threat to the general population, but only to those exposed to risk by nature of their location and/or activity.

STATUS ORANGE - Weather Warning - Be Prepared

This category of ORANGE level weather warnings is for weather conditions which have the capacity to impact significantly on people in the affected areas. The issue of an Orange level weather warning implies that all recipients in the affected areas should prepare themselves in an appropriate way for the anticipated conditions.

STATUS RED - Severe Weather Warning - Take Action

The issue of RED level severe weather warnings should be a comparatively rare event and implies that recipients take action to protect themselves and/or their properties; this could be by moving their families out of the danger zone temporarily; by staying indoors; or by other specific actions aimed at mitigating the effects of the weather conditions.

Someone I know is about to leave in the next hour from Kilkenny heading to Waterford on the motorway. Should I warn them off coming?

Confirmed extreme storm development, 16.7 mb pressure drop in three hours at K4 buoy (outer Donegal Bay), satellite imagery now showing a clearer centre at 53N 18W, M6 buoy at 951 mb, so estimated central pressure 945 mb. This may be running about as intense as the worst of the GFS variants or the GME, could easily imagine a sub-940 reading at K4 and or M4 by 0300h at this rate.

Continue to stress potential for extreme wind gusts and storm surge.

Just to put that three hour pressure fall in some context, "back in the day" when we used to draw up our own maps, and plot pressure changes, it was standard practice to draw dashed lines over the pressure pattern to show equal lines of pressure falls. Anything over 10 mb (in three hours) was considered intense, and 15 mb extreme. I've only seen pressure falls this large with one storm, the Great Lakes superstorm of 26-01-1978 which is sometimes called the Ohio Blizzard of 78 or the Cleveland Superbomb. That one produced wind gusts to 170 km/hr about 100 miles southeast of the centre which achieved a record low pressure reading for stations along its track (e.g., Sarnia ON had 954 mbs, London ON had the extreme winds).

Gust of 40mph here in Naas now

I see a couple of power outages in the west already.

No question at this stage, this is serious. The initial gusts have already done more damage outside our house in Mayo than anything else so far this winter.

Spent the last hour out in it moving cars, removing loose debris and trying to secure some galvanize sheeting on a shed that has already come loose. If this is just the initial blast of a 20 hour storm, then this is one that is going to be remembered - and most forecasts show the worst of it being south of here in areas less used to this kind of wind.

Still a bit gusty in Galway but nothing yet like we've seen already

Sister is driving at 9pm from claregalway to ballyshannon donegal. Shes eager to get home as has worked three long days nursing and wants to get home to rest of us?? Hows bad will storm be on that route then??

They say winds will reach 40 kph

Still dead calm here Aran islands Inis mor

Great info but won't make a bit of difference to the wind

In south kerry, finding it hard to hear the telly at times due to the gusts. They really are powerful at the mo, and the flexing in the front room window glass is frightening!

While all this goes on, my Christmas pressie of a new weather station sits in a box in the back room.