Near-hurricane winds leave thousands powerless

MET ÉIREANN insisted yesterday “the worst of the bad weather is over” after thousands of homes were left without electricity following an all-night raging storm.

Winds in the early hours of yesterday gusted at 91 knots, with a ferocity in excess of 170km/h recorded at Malin Head at 5.30am — a speed only surpassed seven times in Ireland, Met Éireann said.

At 5.40am the Malin station recorded a 10-minute average windspeed of 68 knots (126km/h). That is equivalent to Beaufort scale 12 — hurricane force.

Met Éireann described the pounding as “exceptional”, even for this time of year. At one point, about 15,000 homes were without electricity, mainly due to falling trees pulling down power lines. Slates were whipped off roofs and damage to property was reported.

Power to 5,000 homes was quickly restored. By noon, however, almost 11,000 households remained without power. Donegal and Sligo were worst hit, with 9,000 households affected.

A power outage in Portlaoise was quickly resolved, as was an outage in north Co Dublin. About 1,000 homes in the south-east and south-west also experienced power cuts, as the ESB said it was confident power would be restored across the country by last night.

Travel plans were severely curtailed due to the weather, with the Road Safety Authority urging motorists to take extreme care and to avoid travelling if possible.

Chief executive Noel Brett said traffic would be busy after the festive period as people returned to work, and stressed extra care was needed. He said motorists should expect the unexpected, particularly in exposed coastal and hilly areas of the north-west and north.

Motorists are advised to allow extra space between vehicles and use dipped headlights at all times.

Travel in some parts of the country had already been affected on Monday by dangerous patches of black ice, which led to some local authorities declaring certain roads impassable.

Yesterday, the Automobile Association warned of the risk to high-sided vehicles on exposed roads while many roads were fully or partially blocked by fallen trees in Galway, Mayo, Longford and Monaghan.

Some regional flights to Glasgow, Bristol and Edinburgh were cancelled due to the high winds, with delays on some flights out of Dublin Airport. Some ferry crossings were also delayed.

The good news, according to Siobhán Ryan of Met Éireann, is the weather is expected to settle down in the coming days.

She said while the winds would remain gusty today, particularly in the northwest, they would ease, as the deep low pressure which brought the storm moves over Scotland and on to Scandinavia. Dry weather will follow as temperatures rise.

Blustery conditions expected today will ease, with temperatures rising to between 7 and 10 degrees and reaching 9 and 11 degrees for the rest of the week.