No letup as heavy rainfall set to continue

WET, wet, wet — with more to come.

That’s the warning from Met Éireann, as they predict more heavy showers today after torrential rainfall in recent days.

The southwest and the southeast took the brunt of yesterday’s storm conditions with power outages in some areas, such as Kerry.

Heavy rain is expected to continue, leading to the risk of localised flooding.

However, Met Éireann said yesterday that while a large quantity of rain will have fallen by Saturday, it will not be as heavy as that which caused huge flooding in Dublin last month and resulted in the deaths of two people — off-duty garda Ciaran Jones who was swept to his death helping motorists to safety and Filipina nurse Celia Ferrer de Jesus who drowned when her basement flat was flooded.

Joanna Donnelly of Met Éireann said a heavy belt of rain had just crossed over the country, with bursts of rain set to fall last night and further rainfall today.

“It is basically an awful lot of water,” Ms Donnelly said. “A lot of rain has fallen already and there is a lot more to come.”

However, tomorrow and Sunday will see less rainfall and the heavier rain is more likely to affect the western most reaches of the country.

The reason for the heavy rainfall over much of the country is continuing high pressure over Europe, which is keeping all weather fronts from crossing over Ireland, with the result that larger quantities of rain are falling over the country.

It is this high pressure that is also contributing to the relatively mild conditions being experienced for this time of the year, although Met Éireann was cagey as to whether or not this meant the country will avoid a third harsh and cold winter.

In Kerry, minor flooding was reported on a number of roads, with the south of the county worst affected.

Sandbags were requested in Kenmare, where a power outage affected over 200 customers.

Areas near Killarney, Aghadoe and Fossa areas, were badly flooded while the fire brigade responded to falling trees in the Killorglin area.

In the north of the county, Lixnaw and its environs were worst affected.

Late lights

A SEVERE weather warning from Met Eireann has forced the cancellation of the switch on of Cork city’s main Christmas lights tonight.

The ceremony will now take place next Friday, November 25.

“In the interests of health and safety, and the comfort of the public, we have unfortunately had no choice but to postpone this event,” city manager Tim Lucey said.

However, North Main Street Traders, in the city, will proceed as planned with the switching on of its illuminations at 6.30pm today.

Picture: Some minor flooding in north-west Cork following all the rainfall. Picture: Denis Minihane