Storm Lilian: High winds and heavy rain to hit Ireland as Met Éireann issues weather warnings for 21 counties amid risk of power outages

The national forecaster has said the Met Office in the UK had named the storm, which is the 12th of the season.

Met Éireann forecaster Brandon Creagh said: “The centre of the low-pressure system is expected to track across the middle of country tonight, bringing unseasonably strong and gusty south to southwest winds which will veer west to northwest as the system tracks eastwards.

Storm Lilian is the first beginning with the letter “L” since storm naming began in 2015. It is named after Lilian Bland, who was an Anglo-Irish journalist and pioneer aviator. She was the first woman in Ireland to build and fly an aircraft, and quite possibly the world’s first woman to build her own airplane, the Bland Mayfly.

The strongest of the winds during Storm Lillian will occur overnight but with trees still in full leaf, people need to be careful of debris or branches on the roads tomorrow morning.

While the main effects associated with Storm Lilian will be felt across the UK in the early hours of tomorrow morning, Met Éireann has issued yellow-level wind and rain warnings.

In updated warnings, a Status Yellow rain warning is in place for counties Clare, Galway, Roscommon, Longford, Louth, Meath, Offaly, and Westmeath.

The warning, which will come into effect at 10pm tonight until 4am Friday, will lead to localised flooding and difficult travel conditions.

It follows an earlier warning by Met Éireann, who issued a Status Yellow wind warning for 13 counties as it says “unseasonably strong and gusty south to southwest winds” will bring the risk of power outages, fallen trees and coastal flooding overnight and into Friday.

The weather warning, Met Éireann said, would see “unseasonably strong and gusty south to southwest winds … coincide with very high tides”, and that the potential impacts were coastal flooding, wave over-topping, power outages for affected counties and the risk of fallen trees on roads.

The warning will take effect from midnight Thursday night/Friday morning until 6am tomorrow and will cover Munster, Wexford, Wicklow, Carlow, Kilkenny, Laois, Kildare, Dublin.

Met Éireann had already previously forecast the chance of flooding and thunderstorms for some counties on Friday with mixed weather likely over the coming days.

While it won’t be as windy today, there will be a mix of rain showers and sunshine, followed by heavy falls and spot flooding tonight.

Rain from last night and drizzle will clear this morning and sunny spells and scattered showers will follow from the west for a time, Met Éireann have said.

There will be cloud and rain this afternoon, however, before spreading elsewhere this evening and turning heavy in parts.

Highest temperatures of 15 to 18C with mostly moderate winds.

There will be widespread rain early tonight with some heavy falls, which will lead to spot flooding in places.

It’ll turn very windy for a time in parts of the south and east overnight, with strong to gale force winds.

Lowest temperatures of 9 to 12C overnight.

7-Day Weather Forecast: 19th – 25th of August 2024

Friday will bring a mix of sunny spells and showers, some of them heavy with isolated thunderstorms and the chance of hail, especially in the west and north. The now-added weather warning brings the added dimension of wild weather for the southern half of the country tomorrow morning.

Highest temperatures of 14 to 18C, dropping to 8C overnight, with further isolated thunderstorms forecast.

Saturday will be a bright and breezy day with sunshine and some rain showers.

The national forecaster has said here’ll be good dry spells too, especially further to the east and south.

A little cooler, with highest temperatures of 14 to 17C on Saturday.

It will be dry with some sunshine in the east at first on Sunday, however, there will be cloudier conditions in the west with outbreaks of rain and drizzle in the east.

Highest temperatures of 15 to 18C during the day, dropping to 11 to 14C overnight.

Current indications suggest Monday will be mostly cloudy with patchy outbreaks of rain and drizzle spreading eastwards.

A spell of more persistent and heavy rain looks likely to develop in the west and southwest towards evening.

Highest temperatures of 16 to 18C.

“Changeable and unsettled conditions look likely to persist through midweek but on the plus side, temperatures look set to recover closer to normal,” Met Éireann added.