LAST UPDATE | 15 Aug 2022

A STATUS ORANGE thunderstorm warning has been extended for over half of the country until 10pm tonight. 

A nationwide warning had been in place until 9am today and was due to remain in place for 10 counties but it has now been extended in both duration and the counties affected.

The Status Orange warning is now in place until 10pm for Munster, Wexford, Carlow, Kilkenny, Laois, Offaly, Kildare, Wicklow and Dublin.

Met Éireann is warning that heavy downpours could lead to flooding in places. 

The UK’s Met Office also has a Status Yellow thunderstorm warning in place until midnight tonight for all of Northern Ireland. 

Lightning strikes were visible in many areas last night with  showers that will continue throughout today, especially in southern areas.

A high temperature warning that had been in place across the country for a number of days until yesterday has now ended, bringing an end to a heatwave that broke the all-time August temperature record for Ireland. 

The ESB is also working to restore power to thousands of customers across the country after last night’s thunderstorms caused outages across Ireland.

More than 1,380 homes and businesses are without power in Limerick this morning, including a large outage impacting 1,200 in Ahane.

There are also over 900 without power in Co Longford, 640 in Co Cavan, 300 in Co Wexford, 230 in Co Kilkenny and 220 in Co Galway along with smaller outages in various other areas, including an outage affecting 185 in Nenagh, Co Tipperary.

ESB Networks said it expects power to be fully restored by 2:30pm this afternoon.

The outlook

Unsettled weather is being forecast this week as temperatures cool after last week’s record highs.  

“It’s going to be quite unsettled with rain and showers at times over the next few days, as temperatures gradually return to closer to the average for August,” Met Éireann has said. 

Today’s temperatures are set to l return closer to average, ranging from 15 to 17 degrees in the north and west, and between 18 and 23 degrees elsewhere.

After a number of warm nights, tonight temperatures are set to be cool, averaging at between 10 to 14 degrees.

The weather map for 9am. Met Éireann Met Éireann

Met Eireann forecasts:

“Tomorrow then will be cooler and quite cloudy, with scattered light showers though many areas will have a dry day. Highs of 15 to 19 degrees and breezy at times with moderate fresh northerly breezes. Wednesday then looks to be a largely dry they with a mix of cloudy and sunny spells in the morning and more widespread hazy sunshine developing in the afternoon. Highs again about 16 to 19 degrees, warmest along the south coast.”

- With reporting by Rónán Duffy