Batten down the hatches.
The worst of Storm Eleanor seems to have passed, but Ireland is far from out of the woods as far as the recent spell of wild weather is concerned.
Two updated status yellow wind warnings were issued by Met Éireann on Wednesday afternoon, one which affects the entire country and another that will affect ten counties in the south, east and southeast of the country until Thursday afternoon.
A status yellow wind warning for the entire country was issued by Met Éireann at 2pm on Wednesday, forecasting mean wind speeds of 50 to 60 km/h and gusts of up to 110 km/h. The warning will remain in effect until 6pm on Wednesday.
A second status yellow warning, meanwhile, was issued at 12pm on Wednesday for the entire province of Munster, as well as Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford and Wicklow.
The warning won’t come into effect until the early hours of Thursday morning (3am), but mean wind speeds of 55 to 65 km/hr and gusts of 90 to 110km/hr are expected, so residents of those counties should be wary of a wild night in store.
150,000 homes, farms and businesses – predominantly in counties Mayo, Leitrim, Sligo, Galway, Cavan and Monaghan – suffered a loss in electricity supply as a result of Storm Eleanor on Tuesday evening, while high winds and lightning, mainly in the North-west, resulted in more outages on Wednesday morning, with a further 5,000 customers without power as a result.
On Wednesday afternoon, the National Emergency Coordination Group on Severe Weather said that 16,000 ESB customers who lost supply on Tuesday night remained without power as of noon on Wednesday.
ESB Networks is hopeful that all customers who lost power as a result of Storm Eleanor on Tuesday night will have their power restored by Wednesday night.
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