Storm Chandra causes disruptions across Westmeath

Storm Chandra's heavy rainfall and strong winds have caused some disruptions across Westmeath today. Last night's strong winds have resulted in debris on roads around the county.

The winds brought down wooden railings in the car park in Blackhall Place in Mullingar town centre, while ESB Networks have reported that around 20,000 homes, farms and businesses across Ireland are without power this morning.

A Status Yellow wind warning was in place for the entire country from 3am and remained in place until 11pm, with a separate Status Yellow rain warning in effect for counties Carlow, Kilkenny, Louth, Wexford, Wicklow and Waterford.

Meteorologist Rebecca Cantwell, said: “Storm Chandra is a low-pressure system that will track northwards over the country Monday night and Tuesday, bringing with it rather wet and windy conditions. It will bring heavy spells of rain with strong winds, especially along the coast. It will slowly clear northwards later on Tuesday.

Given the unsettled spell of weather we’ve experienced over the last while, this rain will fall on already saturated ground, combined with the fact that many rivers are approaching or exceeding bank-full conditions, and so we are expecting localised flooding and river flooding as a result. We have issued yellow level rainfall warnings for southeastern counties where the rain is expected to have the greatest impacts.”

A strong polar front jet, as a result of the cold air outbreak over North America, will see the system deepen rapidly to the south of Ireland within the left exit of the jet stream. The storm will approach the south coast overnight before tracking northwards over Ireland during Tuesday.