Gusts hit 112km/h as Storm Jocelyn causes travel chaos

A tourist from Canada, on the Burren, near Black Head lighthouse, Clare in the Republic of Ireland as Storm Jocelyn hits. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Storm Jocelyn has made landfall in Ireland, with two status orange warnings and one status yellow warning now in place.

The country is facing its second storm in three days, as clean-up from Storm Isha is still ongoing.

As of 8.30pm, ESB have said that 16,000 homes, businesses and farms remain without power after Storm Isha.

A further 18,000 have lost power as a result of the arrival of Storm Jocelyn..

However, a spokesperson warned: "Many customers will remain without power tonight while some customers will be without power for a number of days."

The latest storm is the 10th named one of the season.

Two status orange warnings for Galway, Mayo and Donegal have come into effect with Met Éireann warning the storm will bring "very strong southwest to west winds with severe and damaging gusts".

The forecaster is warning of:

• Large coastal waves with wave overtopping 
• Very difficult travelling conditions 
• Fallen trees 
• Damage to power lines 
• Damage to already weakened structures

The warning for Galway and Mayo came into effect at 5pm on Tuesday until midnight while the Donegal alert is in place until 2am on Wednesday. 

Big waves are still hitting Tragumna Beach as Storm Jocelyn is due to hit Ireland tomorrow. Picture: Andy Gibson

The rest of the country is subject to status yellow wind warnings at various times.

Gusts of 112km/h were recorded off Malin Head on Tuesday evening.

The yellow warning for the majority of counties — Leinster, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Cavan, Monaghan, Tipperary, and Roscommon — runs from 2pm on Tuesday until 2am on Wednesday.

Counties Clare, Kerry, Galway, and Mayo have been under a warning since 10am as Storm Jocelyn blows in from the west. That warning will expire at 2am on Wednesday.

The final yellow warning is for counties Donegal, Leitrim, and Sligo came into effect at midday and will remain in place until 5am.

Travel cancellations

A total of eight flights  have been cancelled from Dublin Airport as a result of weather conditions.

Daa said: "Strong gusting winds in the middle part of the afternoon has resulted in 7 aircraft performing go-arounds, while two aircrafts made the decision to divert to Manchester and Belfast respectively, before returning to Dublin Airport shortly after, where both landed successfully."

Meanwhile, two flights on Tuesday were diverted to Shannon Airport from Cork Airport due to the stormy conditions. 

The two flights were a KLM flight 1085 from Amsterdam and a Ryanair flight FR-901 from London Stansted. A Shannon Airport spokesperson said: "Both aircrafts landed safely and were facilitated by airport staff as Storm Jocelyn began to make impact."

The KLM flight 1085 landed at 1.10pm, followed by the Ryanair flight FR-901 at 2.37pm.

The spokesperson added that the airport is "fully operational", with all services running on schedule.

"As during Storm Isha, which saw our airport accept 15 flight diversion from Dublin and Cork, we remain available today to assist other flights impacted by Storm Jocelyn if and when required."

Joanna Donnelly from Met Éireann has warned that we are in for another very windy day.

"Those strong winds are really going to affect many parts of the country right through this afternoon," Ms Donnelly said.

"Particularly looking inland in the middle of the afternoon, from around lunchtime onwards, we will see strong winds across that centre of the country.

"The orange-level winds coming a little bit later into the west and northwest but strong winds, it is going to be a very windy day all day."

Storm Isha cleanup 

Since yesterday, 178,000 homes, businesses, and farms have been reconnected but the ESB said there is still a lot of work for repair crews to do.

"Unfortunately, we still have 57,000 homes, farms, and businesses without power this morning so crews are gathered and ready to go again this morning," said Brian Tapley from ESB.

"We have additional crews moved into the most affected areas, in particular, the northwest - Donegal, Leitrim, Mayo, Sligo and also Cavan - have been badly impacted by the storm."