Atlantic Storm Watch & Coastal Flooding Events: January 2014

tfromkerry

Tactical wrote: »

Skelligs!

Only kidding. Valentia, Ballinskelligs etc may be worth a shot depending on wind and wave direction.

I might get a boat and row out to Skelligs depends on the time i wake on Monday

But thinking Rossbeigh may be the best if we can get down to the shore

HeidiHeidi

Yikes :eek:

maquiladora wrote: »

Look at the size of that thing.

downwiththatsor

tfromkerry wrote: »

Id say the council have closed the road down to Rossbeigh so now sure how far down we can get by car

The high road comes from the west not the East, have not heard of the road being closed, a good few people live down there so local access at least, some houses are at 4-5m above sea level, i hope authorities give adequate warnings if needed.

cyclops999

Oscar Bravo wrote: »

Good points above and its good to see people pointing out basic safety, stay well clear. I was thinking would the Shannon around athlone be at risk of flooding? has to be very high now.

Athlone Town Council has just issued the following statement: Water levels in the River Shannon are continuing to rise and are being monitored by Athlone Town Council. At this stage, a short section of roadway at McQuadesBridge on Deerpark Road has been closed but there is a risk of further flooding. The Council is in receipt of data from the ESB which predicts that water levels will continue to rise for the next 5 days, at least. This predictive model indicates that flooding of the lowest houses in Athlone could occur by the middle of next week. However, this is by no means certain and the situation is being closely monitored. Athlone Town Council has activated its Flood Emergency Response Plan. As part of this plan, a range of precautionary measures are being implemented to reduce the risk of flooding and to provide assistance in the areas at most risk. The public are advised to be aware of the current risks associated with the River Shannon and to take whatever precautions you can if you live in a vulnerable area. Further more detailed advice is available on the Councils’ websites at www.athlone.ie and www.westmeathcoco.ie. A further update on river levels will issue on Monday 6th January 2014 -

HeidiHeidi

God almighty!

I've only ever fallen into KQ as a port of refuge from bloody awful weather as a sailor, and a fantastic port of refuge it was... but those scenes are almost unimaginable, even though I'm looking at photos of them......

vickers209 wrote: »

Few pics from kilmore quay facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kilmore-Quays-Fishing-Fleet/114213565277386

(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));

Post by Kilmore Quay's Fishing Fleet.

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Cantona's Collars

Just looking at the pics of Kilmore Quay,what's the scenario for that region tomorrow? Was thinking of heading down that way or perhaps over towards the Hook for a spot of wave watching.

Harps

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Do you mind me asking which bit of NW Donegal you're in? (assuming that's where you're talking about, going by your profile info!)

We've a house up that way - it's up on a hill, so in no danger, but I can only imagine the pounding the coastlline took. I'm half hoping to get up there next week, I hope that they didn't get too bad a hammering....

Rosses area, Arranmore, Burtonport, Annagry all had flooding damage. Wasn't anywhere else but likely similar scenes at every coastal village

BorneTobyWilde

Happyman42 wrote: »

Is that Benjamin Franklin in the middle of it?

Not altered just colored

H2UMrsRobinson

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

Not altered just colored

Who ya gonna call ? (Soz )

vickers209

Name is Christine according to independent

Brace yourselves, storm Christine is on her way.
As most of the country continues to rebuild the damage from flooding, high tides and hail over the last 48 hours, there's more to come.

'Christine' is set to bring coastal waves of up to 70ft, while Met Eireann have issued a yellow alert for high winds, in particular across Leinster, Connacht, Munster, Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan.

Gale force winds and heavy rain is expected tomorrow morning

Winds are expected to be light overnight, but gale-force winds are expected to arrive tomorrow morning along with rainy conditions, which are set to last until Wednesday.

High tides, whipped up by strong winds, caused extensive flooding in coastal towns and cities, including Galway and Cork. Several rivers flooded, including the Liffey in Dublin city centre, as water was forced back up river by high seas.

Roads were left under water or blocked by debris in many parts of the country, while sea defences were breached along the east and west coasts.

And there will be no let-up in the weather into next week.

Met Eireann says cold conditions early today will be replaced by strong gusts, rain in the west and south and high tides, which could result in yet more flooding.

But temperatures are to plummet tonight - and further flooding next week.

"Seas will probably go down a little bit because the winds will be slack but they'll pick up again Sunday and Monday so there's still a risk," said Met Eireann's Pat Clarke.

"There's an ongoing risk of flooding because the land is saturated and on top of that you have the coastal situation."

Not since 1998 has Ireland experienced such destructive storms, according to Mr Clarke, who recalled record gusts of around 170kph off Donegal when a storm swept across Ireland and the UK causing severe flooding and power outages.

Galway, Clare and Cork were the worst-hit areas yesterday.

A number of shops and restaurants in Galway city were under several feet of water and forced to close. As the properties are in a flood zone they have no insurance cover.

Niall McNeilis, who runs a jewellers at the Spanish Arch, said more than €10,000 worth of damage had been caused.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/storm-christine-en-route-to-ireland-29887508.html

chicken foot

What exactly are we expecting here? It states waves of up to 70ft in coastal areas, should we be expecting huge walls of water to come charging at us? I would really love a bit more explanation of what we are in for.

maquiladora

chicken foot wrote: »

What exactly are we expecting here? It states waves of up to 70ft in coastal areas, should we be expecting huge walls of water to come charging at us? I would really love a bit more explanation of what we are in for.

There won't be 70ft waves on the coast, that will be further out at sea. I'd imagine it will be something similar to the recent coastal flooding, hopefully not as severe, but some coastal defences have been broken in places.

Steopo

Another important factor to a waves energy is the wave period - the time in secs between the wave crests. The longer the period the more energy the wave will carry - the forecast for Mon am on the south/west coast (south of Galway) is in excess of 20secs which is at the very high end of the scale. In the surfing world to have wave heights > 20ft & wave period >20 secs is highly unusual and means a biggie. To also have this crashing in near high tide when the tide is high I would have thought is not good. From reading up on this a single wave in a wave period of 20sec+ could be travelling at 60knts in deep ocean :eek:

Still unpredictable how big waves will be and how much damage they could do but those in the vicinity of South West & West coasts should take heed. On a National level think the only danger is more from possible river flooding rather as wind & rain won't be severe.

http://magicseaweed.com/UK-Ireland-Surf-Chart/1/#?chartType=PERPW&_suid=1388875179107017324755806475878

Oscar Bravo

A 2257 update from Met Eireann....
Tomorrow:

It will become wet and very windy on Sunday morning as the rain continues to spread northeastwards. The rain will be accompanied by strong to gale force and gusty south to southeast winds. The rain will turn to heavy showers in the afternoon and winds will veer southwesterly. It will become relatively mild with highs of 8 to 11 degrees.

Outlook

There is still the risk of coastal flooding with high tides and some strong winds at the start of the week. However it will become less windy from Tuesday onwards, with largely dry weather until later in the week.

The windy weather will continue overnight on Monday, with heavy, possibly thundery showers along western and southern coasts. Lows of 4 to 6 degrees.

Tuesday will be another breezy day, with more heavy showers in Atlantic coastal counties. The fresh southwest winds will continue and will be strong along coasts. Much of Leinster and east Ulster should remain largely dry. Highs of 8 or 9 degrees. Winds will ease off on Tuesday night and temperatures will drop to between 2 and 4 degrees.

Wednesday will bring an improvement in the weather with just occasional showers in parts of the west. It will be less windy too with light southerly winds. Highs of 7 to 10 degrees. Some outbreaks of rain look like affecting eastern parts overnight, with lows of 0 to 3 degrees.

Thursday will be a similar day, largely dry with light winds. A little cooler with highs of 6 to 8 degrees. A cool start to Thursday night, with a touch of frost, but rain will move into the west coast towards the morning.

This rain will spread eastwards through Friday, with moderate winds (edit, they have left out tomorrow night, im sure they will fix soon)

Steopo

chicken foot wrote: »

What exactly are we expecting here? It states waves of up to 70ft in coastal areas, should we be expecting huge walls of water to come charging at us? I would really love a bit more explanation of what we are in for.

Appreciate some people flick through posts here so can misinterpret the intentions of what is being said and some of the press jump on sensationalist headlines so just to be clear it's not a Tsunami we're expecting with 70ft waves & cows flying.

It's probably a question of whether the coastal damage in some areas will be as bad as Friday morning or not - lower tides & less winds would indicate not as bad as Friday but larger swell & wave energy would give concern that it could cause some more damage. River flooding from high tides, drenched ground, Sunday rain and the swells could be another issue but one to watch - Shannon overflowing at Athlone has already been flagged as a concern and would think Liffey could potentially reach similar heights on Monday to Fri morning depending on how much that swell impacts the Irish sea

RoisinD

pad199207 wrote: »

I would imagine so I'm afraid.
Liscannor pier was badly damaged I heard. The road to Lahinch was cut off at the estuary.
I also heard Clahan point has been redesigned by the sea!

Was there today. Some damage done at Liscannor but Clahane is a different story. A new wall was built there as part of the sea defences and although parts of it are still there it looked today as if the sea had just come over it and continued on for at least a hundred metres. The road, which has been damaged by seas in the past, has been completely decimated with what looks like huge craters gouged out. The sides of the road are completely gone. There was a beautifully built old stone wall about 100 metres in and it looked as if the sea just charged through it and knocked it over like a set of dominoes. Can only imagine what it was like on the night. Very worrying for some of the property there if it is anything like the other evening.

Doolin was similar and they were clearing out the portacabins today. The size of the rocks that were moved at Doolin were unbelievable. It seems anywhere the sea could get in it took full advantage. The sand dunes further up the coast at Fanore which they were trying to preserve were also badly damaged.
Hopefully tomorrow will not be as bad but the sea has much easier access to some of the places it breached the other night.

sandin

Tactical wrote: »

Skelligs!

Only kidding. Valentia, Ballinskelligs etc may be worth a shot depending on wind and wave direction.

With south south westerly winds looking most likely then the absolute best waves will over the southern side of the Waterville headland about 4km past Skelligs bay golf club clubhouse. Its a dead end but it is high and overlooks a great rock formation. Even on a standard windy summers day there are great waves.

sunbabe08

pad199207 wrote: »

next one is called Christine

since when did we start naming storms?

Oscar Bravo

Its coming up to five to midnight so lets head over to met eireann on rte radio 1 to get the latest.....

Pangea

When is the biggest tide/swell? tomorrow morning/evening/ monday morning?

billie1b

sunbabe08 wrote: »

since when did we start naming storms?

I prefered Sofia

maquiladora

sunbabe08 wrote: »

since when did we start naming storms?

Free University of Berlin has been naming low pressure systems since the 1950s. It's just something the media have decided to pick up on recently.

maquiladora

Pangea wrote: »

When is the biggest tide/swell? tomorrow morning/evening/ monday morning?

Monday morning-afternoon.

aisling86

Oscar Bravo wrote: »

Its coming up to five to midnight so lets head over to met eireann on rte radio 1 to get the latest.....

What's the update?

Oneiric 3

Have to say, despite all the minute flaws in the run on run model outputs, this huge Atlantic system has been forecast by them well in advance - as have the other systems that affected us so far this winter.

I remember watching a tv documentary last year about weather forecasting in Ireland and recall one veteran mentioning how suddenly the 'Fastnet Storm' sprung up and as a consequence, caught many sailors unaware. The storm itself was not forecast to develop that strongly at all by manual forecasters, either here or in the UK. If the same type of storm was to develop these days, it is almost a given that it would be picked up on the models at least a couple of days in advance.

There have been various disputes about relying too much on NWP when doing up a forecast, but I think in these types of situations, they prove vital and potentially save lives.

yop

Really do hope this is the end of it, lack of sleep, worry for the kids and now been on the road at 6.30am has me stressed and worn out !:D

Do I sound like my Dad!!!!!

Spindle

Would be interesting to see if Fastnet Rock Lighthouse gets hit by any big waves. There was a rouge wave knocked out the light before (which is 150 feet plus above the water line).

Anybody fancy a spin out there to see

maquiladora

Based on the current models, it seems Inch reefs in Kerry will see the highest surf, 42.5ft @ 20 seconds. For comparison it's highest surf during the storm early Friday morning was 37ft @ 17 seconds.

Lahinch is looking at 27ft @ 21 seconds, and on Friday morning it was 27ft @ 18 seconds.

murdig

Do you think Kerry will be badly affected by the weather in the coming days?

Steopo

maquiladora wrote: »

Based on the current models, it seems Inch reefs in Kerry will see the highest surf, 42.5ft @ 20 seconds. For comparison it's highest surf during the storm early Friday morning was 37ft @ 17 seconds.

Lahinch is looking at 27ft @ 21 seconds, and on Friday morning it was 27ft @ 18 seconds.

Looks like same or slightly higher waves but with more energy but with winds lighter and tide lower do you reckon the impact would be about the same or possible a bit worse with some defences already damaged?