Ireland may need to prepare for additional wind and rain next week when Hurricane Kirk’s tail end moves through, according to Met Éireann, which has increased its warnings for southern counties ahead of this weekend’s predicted severe rains, reports Breaking News.
This weekend, a low pressure system is expected to approach the nation slowly, according to Met Éireann.
Forecasters revised their weekend warnings on Friday morning based on updates from the meteorological agency’s models.
Kerry and Cork now have status-orange rainfall warnings for the whole day on Saturday, with an additional hour added to their duration, reports Breaking News.
Waterford was given an amber status warning, which is in effect from Saturday at 12:00 p.m. to Sunday at midnight.
According to Met Éireann, a number of variables contributed to this, including high tide coincided with the strongest rain, soil conditions that have not recovered from last weekend’s significant rains, and heavy rainfall in hilly areas.
River levels will also be exacerbated by recent to severe onshore winds, according to experts, reports Breaking News.
Liz Coleman, deputy head of forecasting for Met Éireann, said that warm tropical air will be drawn up over the nation by a combination of low pressure to the north and high pressure in the mid-Atlantic.
“As we know, the warmer the air, the higher its ability to hold moisture, so this event has the potential to be quite impactful,” she said, reports Breaking News.
“While much of the west and southwest are forecast to receive over 30mm of rain in a 24-hour period, our models are currently predicting in excess of 50mm of rain over parts of southwest Kerry and west Cork, with higher accumulations possible in mountainous areas,” reports Breaking News.
Meanwhile, as the remains of a significant storm move into northwest Europe in the middle of the week, possibly disruptive weather is also conceivable.
At the moment, Hurricane Kirk is still in the middle North Atlantic Ocean at category 4 intensity, reports Breaking News.
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