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THE BIGGEST WAVE ever recorded in Irish waters was detected in the Atlantic today as the country was lashed by gales.
The huge wave, measuring 20.4metres (67ft) from peak to trough, was recorded by a weather buoy west of Rathlin O’Birne island in Donegal bay. The swell was described by the Coast Guard as a “phenomenon”.
It came as the public were warned to avoid exposed coastal areas this evening, with gales and severe weather forecast to continue.
The Coast Guard have asked all members of the public to stay away from piers, beaches and sea walls, warning of the possibility of huge waves. All small vessels have been urged to take shelter, and their owners to moor them securely.
Met Éireann this morning issued a severe weather alert along with a gale warning, forecasting winds of up to 140kph. The gusts will be strongest along the north coast, reaching storm force at times.
Declan Geoghegan, manager of the Irish Coast Guard, warned of the possibility of “very dangerous conditions” inland as well as at sea. He said people should be extremely wary if any flood waters rise as swollen rivers meet high seas.
“Do not attempt to cross at fast running river or flood water fords as they may be stronger and deeper than you think,” he said. “Flooded urban areas may contain many hazards, not least of which include submerged open manholes and downed power lines.”
Meanwhile, the AA is urging drivers to take care this evening, saying that on some roads temperatures are already falling below zero with a strong risk of slippery conditions. Snow and sleet showers are expected to return in some areas tonight, with northern counties and the midlands especially at risk.
Irish Rail has currently issued no travel alerts. The winds are expected to slow later tonight, with tomorrow bringing more brighter spells.
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Who makes this kinda stuff up? I really don’t understand the mentality of the type of people who would go out of their way to play on people’s fears with a view to stealing from them (information, bank details, whatever).
@lambda sensor: I agree, but if it is a text message it should have a source number so the telephone operators should be able to pass on the information to the gardai. I assume it is an offence to impersonate a government or state (or any) organisation.
Jail without access to the internet for the duration to these scam individuals. If coming from abroad then block the foriegn operators numbers from all texts and calls to Ireland
The telecom operators can be very quick to protect themselves but are lacking in protecting it’s customs. Bet they could stop all texts with the link in it and other scams but for some reason they seem slow to act. Yet social media platforms can stop the spread and remove stuff if needed.
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: There are many SIM card providers out there now so it would be very difficult to track things back to the source. With GSM cards being so cheap and easy to use plus the availability of GSM application SIM cards it is a very simple thing to setup a PC controlled system which will spit out messages all day. Those messages are not even sent from a standard off the shelf phone.
@David Corrigan:
If it is a foreign network, block the whole network and tell them to figure it out…
@David Corrigan: I have no doubt that they are almost certainly run from a device and not single composed messages in most cases and might be hard to trace back – ISP logs could help. But even if the guys could not be stopped the mobile operators could stop messages based upon content unless they have now encrypted plain text messages. We can then go to the ISP to block access to that link. Or do what they did in the USA, do a DNS redirected.
When telecom sites were replicated and phishing sites created to mimic them these sites were blocked or unhosted within 30 minutes – so it is possible to block access and prevent too much harm being done.
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: it can be configured in a way that you only see the name of the sender (the name they give themselves) like when you get a text message from your bank with a one time password to login. The sender in turn can be located abroad.
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: the whole world is seeing cyber theft and scams it is not unique to telcos that you allege ( wrongly ) that are sitting back and not taking action – there is an enormous amount of money and effort and resources spent by operators to try shut down scams – unfortunately once the the internet has been opened to all the smartfones then these challenges get more and more difficult – it is not as straight forward as blocking a call ( I work in this field )
Surely the network operators can block this fake information from circulating .
@Eug J Cummins: Would be next to impossible to do this.
@David Corrigan: block mass commercial texts that use the term HSE that are not from an authorised sender
@Eug J Cummins: They can (and used to many years ago) but wont now.
It would actually be straightforward, but would block advertising companies. These are sent by international SMS relays, and it would take 5 seconds to turn on a block if no number or name present.
Ah any close contact of a positive case would know this is fake . 24 days not one call from HSE. Luckily I contacted my contacts myself . Everybody in same circumstances should do it . If you know you’ve been exposed , contact the people you were with and tell them to quarantine and call their GP. Same if you’re a positive case . Otherwise it’s “ waiting for Godot”.
Those f@#£ers should be shot with balls of there own s#%T
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