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THERE’S A HIGH degree of uncertainty regarding how Hurricane Lorenzo will progress as it crosses the Atlantic and it could take up to 48 hours to get a better idea of what impact it has if or when it reaches Ireland, Met Éireann has said.
Speaking to RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland, head of forecasting Evelyn Cusack said Lorenzo will have transitioned to an extra-tropical storm in the coming days with the possibility it could bring strong winds and heavy rain.
Lorenzo was upgraded to a category 5 hurricane at the weekend – with maximum winds of 250km/h – but that has already been downgraded to a category four storm.
It is expected to weaken further as it tracks north-eastwards to the Azores to a category one or two storm, Cusack said.
The storm’s path is then uncertain but it is possible that it will reach Ireland towards the latter half of this week.
“It’s all to play for at this stage,” she said.
Cusack added that officials from Met Éireann would be speaking to colleagues at the Met Office in the UK and others as they all track the storm’s progress.
Separately, there are two Status Yellow rainfall warnings in place for 10 counties today.
One of these came into effect in the early hours of the morning for Cork and Kerry and remains in place until 4pm today.
A further warning applies to Dublin, Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, Wexford, Wicklow, Tipperary and Waterford from 9am to 8pm.
In both cases, 25-35mm of rain is forecast with a risk of spot flooding.
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Sad to hear that..hope it was nature that was the cause.
Fascinating story : really enjoyed it even if it wasn’t exactly happy ever after .It’s great to know that in spite of everything we have people in our little country so dedicated to wildlife .Have other people in the older age bracket noticed just how drastically the insect population has declined since they were v young .May not seem that important as insects generally can be such a nuisance but clearly it does represent a mini crisis for nature in other areas
@Joan Grennan: it’s particularly noticeable on cars after long summer evening drives. There’s not nearly as many insects squished on the cars. It’s the same here in the US.
@Joan Grennan: it’s no mini crisis, with less insects comes less creatures that feed on them all the way up the chain such as fish and birds. The more of them that are lost such as pollinators the less agri foods that depend on them for pollination will take place. With that go’s some of our food source along with flowers and plants that we need in turn to produce oxygen. Everything is linked and balance is needed for it all to work and what has humanity done for its part in the process, destroyed as much of it as we possibly can for short term gain.
@Mickey Amoko: That’s due to increased usage of spraying on farm land.
@Joan Grennan: I wonder has the reduced insect population affected the number of birds like swallows. I did read before that the swift population is far smaller today than it was 30 years ago.
@Joan Grennan: You’re not the only one who has noticed. One thing we can do to help is to not have a light on at night in rooms with a window open. There may not be vast quantities of insects get attracted in and trapped, but every saving contribution does matter in the longer term.
@Joan Grennan: This is just anecdotal evidence but since we stopped using Roundup (and all other chemical pesticides) around the garden and surrounding fields we’ve seen a huge increase in bees, butterflies and other insects. I’ve even seen dragon flies around the nearby stream which I haven’t seen in 30 years.
I did not realise Cranes were extinct in Ireland as we have regular visits to our shed roof in Dublin by two Cranes including a young bird, they love cat food and are drawn here as we feed three cats daily, the other visitor is a large hedgehog who also shares a passion for cat food, I also see foxes and a badger around so it’s amazing there are such creatures in green belt areas, hopefully we can enjoy them for years to come before the apartment blocks appear and our little friends disappear.
@Honeybee: Likewise in these parts, there are cranes on the local river for a long time. This year I even saw a fledgling when out walking.
@Gearoid De Nogla: you might be confusing them with the common heron. They look very similar.
@Gearoid De Nogla: FYI, you didn’t see a Crane, what you saw was a Grey Heron.
@Honeybee: FYI, you didn’t see a Crane, what you saw was a Grey Heron.
@Gearoid De Nogla: Maybe they were herons?
Having stumbled across some of the “nest cam” videos on YT, it is a wonder that any birds survive. Survival is tough and nature can be cruel.
Crane’s giving birth to live young? Wow
@Gavin Tobin: Well there’s a housing shortage, unless we breed more cranes we’ll never get those apartments finished.
F off there’s a dozen viable from arklow Bridge they must love s.. T
So long fraser and niles
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