MET Eireann has slapped two counties with three-hour thunderstorm warnings that are already in effect.
Ireland is gearing up to be battered by heavy rain and thunderstorms for the next couple of hours as miserable weather sweeps across the country.
Some areas look set to escape the rain altogether[/caption]
Met Eireann warned that there is a chance of “a few thunderstorms”, mainly in northern areas, before it becomes mostly dry and sunny later as showers become isolated.
Temperatures today are maxing out at 14C in the northwest and 20C in the south.
Cavan and Monaghan are the two counties that are expected to be worst hit, with Met Eireann placing both spots under a Status Yellow thunderstorm warning just after 1pm today.
Warning of lightning damage and spot flooding as possible effects of the weather, the forecasters said: “Isolated thunderstorms moving eastwards.”
The Status Yellow warning kicked in at 1:01pm this afternoon and will remain in place until 4pm.
Once the warning is no longer in effect, Ireland can expect “mainly dry” weather with clear spells for the majority of the night.
However, Met Eireann warned that cloud will move into the west and north later in the night, along with some outbreaks of rain.
Temperatures will plunge between 6C and 11C before reaching their highest at 22C on Thursday afternoon.
And, although temperatures will pass over 20C in some areas tomorrow, Met Eireann warned it will be “rather cloudy” with outbreaks of rain, especially across the northern half of the country.
Those further south are expected to get mainly dry weather with some bright or sunny spells.
Met Eireann said: “The rain will clear eastwards through the morning, with a mix of sunshine and scattered showers following, a few heavy further north, with the slight chance of an isolated thunderstorm.
“The showers will become isolated later. Highest temperatures of 16C to 22C in mostly moderate west to southwest winds, fresher in the northwest and west.”
Looking further ahead, Met Eireann warned people to brace for an unsettled weekend with windy conditions and heavy rain.
The forecaster said: “Our weather will be fairly unsettled to end the week and over the weekend with spells of rain or showers and it’ll be rather windy, indeed unseasonably so on Friday.
“While it’s likely to be drier early next week with lighter winds, but there’ll still be some showers around.
“Temperatures will generally be around average for the time of year, though a little below in parts of the west and northwest.”
WHY IS SUMMER SO DISAPPOINTING?
Ireland’s weather is remaining rather mixed and somewhat disappointing this summer, but Cathal Nolan from Ireland’s Weather Channel has explained exactly why we haven’t been basking in sunshine.
He said: “The weather across the Atlantic is dominated by the NAO phase, which itself is a marker of how two areas of semi permanent pressure centres are behaving (Icelandic Low and Azores High).
“When low pressure is prevalent across Iceland with high pressure strong across the Azores, this is known as an NAO+. Which leads to mild wet weather for ourselves.
“This is the typical pattern that we experience in winter, with a somewhat greater occurrence of NAO- conditions during summer, but that hasn’t been the case over the past two summers.”
JET STREAM ‘STEERING’
Nolan said this pattern allows jet stream in the mid Atlantic to steer areas of low pressure and cloud our direction, while the rest of the European continent and even the south of England enjoy plenty of sunshine.
He continued: “It’s been scientifically proven that the AMOC, a key component of the global thermohaline circulation has been weakening and is at its weakest state in over 1,000 years.
“This in turn has lead to a cold pool of water south of Greenland and Iceland, which in turn creates a thermal boundary between the cool sea surface temperatures in the subpolar Atlantic while the subtropical Atlantic continues to heat up.”
Nolan said the thermal boundary becomes for areas of low pressure and acts like a “steering mechanism” for the jet stream.
This directs areas of cloud and low pressure towards Ireland and northwest Europe while advecting plumes of very hot air northwards across Europe from the African continent.
This has lead to the extreme heatwaves we’ve seen across Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, the Balkans and Greece.
Nolan added: “Finally, weakening of the jet stream caused by a reduction in the thermal gradient between the Arctic and subtropical zones in certain other zones across the globe has lead to a weakening of the jet stream, causing it to bend and buckle, meandering more slowest and getting stuck with increasing regularity owing to heat domes and omega blocks in certain locations, while other areas experience cooler, more unsettled conditions.”
Cavan and Monaghan have been placed under the weather warnings[/caption]
