'It's time to go': Evelyn Cusack retiring from Met Éireann after more than 40 years

Met Éireann's outgoing head of forecasting Evelyn Cusack.

Thursday will mark the final day for Met Éireann's head of forecasting Evelyn Cusack.

The well-known RTÉ weather presenter is retiring from her position in the national forecaster after 42 years, having joined Met Éireann back in 1981.

From there, she spent decades as a presenter of the weather on our screens and even made an appearance on The Late Late Toy Show.

Speaking on Thursday morning, Ms Cusack reflected on her career, noting that when she first began presenting, forecasters were only able to predict the following day's weather.

Now, as she pointed out, you can see as far as 10 days in advance thanks to technology.

Evelyn Cusack: "I'm healthy and I'm ready for my next adventure." 

She told Newstalk Breakfast: "If you hang around long enough, you become part of the furniture. I know lots of people grew up with me, I was on TV for 30 years. Still even in this digital age, people keep quiet for the weather forecast!"

Ms Cusack explained that she had decided to retire on June 1 because it was the first day of summer.

"I think I've had a good innings, it's time to go. We all have to retire some time and it's been an incredible privilege and honou. I'm well, I'm healthy and I'm ready for my next adventure."

Ms Cusack was appointed as head of forecasting in 2017, describing the year that followed as her "annus horribilis of weather" thanks to Storm Ophelia being followed by the infamous 'Beast from the East'.

Shutting down the Ploughing Championships in September of 2017 was a "huge deal".

Evelyn Cusack 

Speaking to RTÉ ahead of her last day, she recalled how there was a yellow weather warning in place at the time but there was still some uncertainty.

She explained: "I looked and thought oh, around 80-90km/h winds, a huge, tented village and 100,000 people.

"It was a huge deal then...it seemed like an enormous thing to do. I mean, I closed it down.

"But then, thankfully, just professionally for me, the winds whipped up and everything was flattened."

Relieved, she said: "Obviously you don't want anyone hurt or houses knocked down, but you want your forecast to be right and to be able to give enough notice that people can take action."

Ms Cusack said she is looking forward to watching Met Éireann's involvement in the "next weather revolution" of AI.

Ms Cusack says she is looking forward to having spare time to carry out her hobbies, including hiking.