Carlow Weather's Alan O'Reilly tells of taking his passion to the extreme
Alan O'Reilly, known to his fanbase as Carlow Weather, at his home near Tullow, Co Carlow. Picture: Mary Browne
He gets as excited about storms and snowfall as he does Christmas, meets his fiancé because of his passion, and books holidays from work to experience extreme weather events.
Alan O'Reilly, better known to an ever-burgeoning online fanbase as Carlow Weather, has become one of Ireland's best-known social media presences due to his dedication to tracking the country's predictably unpredictable outside conditions.
As Storm Cíarán threatened to ravage much of the country at the start of this week, mere days after Storm Babet caused massive damage in the likes of Midleton in East Cork, thousands of followers on X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram were hanging on every word typed by Carlow Weather.
He managed to assuage worries for thousands of followers in vulnerable areas across the country by tracking the movement of Storm Cíarán, accounting for its movements in live updates minute-by-minute, and hour-by-hour.
Correctly predicting its path would veer off into the Irish Sea and instead barrel towards the Channel Islands and France, the Carlow Weather account has become as important a presence for many Irish people as Met Éireann is.
Mr O'Reilly has been doing similar for the best part of 15 years since he first got a weather station at his home near Tullow in Carlow. But that's not even remotely the start of his journey.
As other youngsters became passionate about the likes of sport and music, Alan O'Reilly was becoming obsessed with the weather.
"It nearly all comes back to snow — will it snow, why did it snow, why did we get snow and others didn't? That was the intrigue. One of my grandfathers was a gardener, the other a part-time farmer. As a young fella, I spent my teenage years turning hay by hand. The impact of weather on that, trying to save the hay, covering it, watching thunderstorms.
"I studied software programming in Carlow IT and I worked in IT for more than 20 years, so I've always been at a computer. It started with the likes of Boards.ie or Netweather in the UK, then being able to access information and studying modelling became a lot more accessible.
"In 2008, I got a weather station, a small and cheap one that was blown away in the middle of the night. Then I decided to invest in a better one, hook it up to the computer, and record the data. From there, I set up carlowweather.com, and 2010 was the first big weather event for me."
The Big Freeze of January 2010 saw Alan's weather station record a -17.7C temperature, the coldest in the country, albeit unofficially. The website numbers spiked around then, he said, as people logged on to see the 60-second updates.
"I ended up on local radio and then with the late Gerry Ryan, and from there it took off," he said.
Facebook and Twitter pages followed, with Instagram a few years later.
Mr O'Reilly freely admits that the experts in Met Éireann have a very difficult job, whereas he is merely interested in it as a passion.
"The scientists have a very difficult job, whereas I can just talk to people like a neighbour or a friend. I think that came from working in a bar when I was younger, and having a conversational style rather than getting bogged down in the very difficult science.
"I can say something might happen, or could happen a week out, whereas to be fair to Met Éireann, they can't really do that, they have to be more precise. That's kind of what I was able to do with Storm Cíarán, tracking it for a few days and showing the different models. It can evolve and change.
"There's a different following on each social media platform. Facebook tends to be for older people, Instagram younger, and Twitter a bit of a mix. It's great when you get feedback from people about what I am doing, I meet people in the shops and that, and they're great."
Mr O'Reilly said living with dyslexia has helped him develop a "thick skin" online, where abuse can be prevalent.
He has observed the impact of climate change in recent years.
"Oh yeah, weather events have become more prevalent and extreme, there's no doubt. I'm not a climate change expert, I'll leave that to others, but it is more common in the last few years. I try to stay away from climate change discussions because although climate change affects the weather, the weather is not climate. I track weather. I leave climate change to those with expertise. I'm learning all the time, like others," he said.
Mr O'Reilly's passion has led to happiness in his personal life. Eimear Ní Bhraonáin is a journalist who invited the man known as Carlow Weather on her programme on KCLR Live a number of times.
"She's now my fiancé, and is a very understanding partner when it comes to the time I spend on the weather. She was laughing on her own social media a couple of weeks back when I was getting giddy over Storm Babet coming. I must admit I get very excited."
His understanding employers at IT firm Blacknight Solutions, where he works as a customer experience manager, are also well used to his ways, he says.
The Beast from the East snowstorm in 2018 was "like Christmas" for Mr O'Reilly, he said.
"The work crew always joke whenever I book a few days off that there must be a storm or snow coming.
"For the week of the Beast from the East, I booked the week off work pretty much, and we got a lash of snow around my house here in Carlow. Those are some of the most amazing moments I have had, it was all my Christmases coming at once.
"It's not like I like weather extremes to cause damage or that I enjoy destruction, but the thrill of tracking storms and extreme weather is still the same as it was when I was a youngster — especially snow."
Check out the Irish Examiner's WEATHER CENTRE for regularly updated short and long range forecasts wherever you are.
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