“DISAPPOINTING” WEATHER WARNINGS, “inaccurate” forecasting and issues with spelling were among the issues raised in hundreds of complaints sent to Met Éireann this year.
The year was somewhat eventful in terms of weather, with high temperature warnings in place in September and areas of Cork, Waterford and other counties experiencing severe flooding during numerous storms.
Transcripts of complaints released to The Journal reveal that, just like in previous years, the public had dozens of issues to raise with Ireland’s meteorological service between 1 January and 26 October of this year.
Complaints ranged from problems with Met Éireann predictions, to dissatisfaction with the forecaster’s app, to how the forecaster sets alerts for certain weather events.
The weather event that Met Éireann received the highest level of complaints about this year was, unsurprisingly, Storm Babet in November.
18 October saw Storm Babet cause some parts of Ireland to be hit with major floods.
Midleton in southeast Cork was one of the places worst affected, with some 100 homes and businesses flooded. The local hospital also had to be evacuated, while a rest centre was temporarily set up for people who had to be evacuated from their homes.
A Status Orange rain warning was issued on 17 October until 1pm the following day for Cork, Kerry and Waterford.
Many people wrote to Met Éireann on the 18th to criticise the forecaster for not issuing a Status Red warning.
One person wrote: “Having personally witnessed flooding, the likes of which I have never seen before while driving around during the Orange alert today, I would be grateful if I could be informed as to why the unprecedented dire conditions did not warrant a Red warning.”
They said that while they expected “significant” surface water on their route to work, they “did not expect to see the severity of the flooding” they encountered nor to “see the seawall breached on the N25 outside Youghal”.
In another complaint, someone said they were “completely outraged by the fact Met Éireann did not issue a Status Red warning for Munster”.
Similarly, another person said: “Met Éireann should have issued a Red warning for Cork/Waterford. The flooding is appalling. Very poor forecasting.”
Someone else wrote to Met Éireann said they were “absolutely dismayed by the poor forecasting” and the “disregard for safety”.
Another person said that the Orange warning “left Cork city and county open to very dangerous and destructive conditions”.
“No one was prepared for the flooding. Is the colour coding of the storms not in place to protect people and property?”
One person said: “Honestly, I’m disappointed to say the least. Orange warning in Cork?”
This is just a snippet of the many complaints received by Met Éireann regarding Storm Babet.
The following week, Waterford City and nearby areas were hit by severe flooding. Roads were closed, and one pregnant woman had to be rescued from her home after her estate was hit by rapidly rising waters.
In a statement following Babet, Met Éireann said that the weather warnings issued during the storm were based on the latest guidance from its Harmonie Numerical Weather Prediction model as well as from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting model.
It said that “these warnings were confirmed by the majority of the recorded rainfall accumulations” at its weather stations during the period.
The forecaster noted that the warnings issued also contained forecasted impacts.
“These were flooding, poor visibility, dangerous driving conditions and possible wave overtoppingh at high tide, across all areas where Orange warnings were in place,” Met Éireann’s statement said, adding that “flooding and flood-related impacts were included in warnings issued as the river levels were expected to be high”.
According to Met Éireann, weather warnings are issued during severe weather to save lives and protect the livelihoods of people across the country, as well as to mitigate damage to property and disturbance to economic activity.
Warnings are issued across three colour codes – yellow (least severe), orange and red (most severe) – whenever weather conditions meeting certain thresholds are anticipated within a 48-hour period.
Hazards for which the forecaster issues the warnings include wind, rain, snow, low temperatures, high temperatures, fog, thunderstorms and coastal wind warnings.
Met Éireann also issues other types of warnings, such as various marine warnings and environmental warnings.
A number of other complaints were sent to Met Éireann throughout the year regarding its weather warning system.
For example, on 6 June, one person wrote: “We had, I think, for or five Yellow weather warnings for Tipperary in May with nothing more than a gentle breeze here in Clonmel. Today, we have [had] very strong winds and torrential rain for the last two hours but no weather warning. Can you explain?”
There have been a number of other storms which resulted in damage and floods since Babet, however, the complaints outlined here only date up to 26 October.
On 13 November, at least six people were rescued in Galway, which was placed until Status Red and Orange warnings, as Storm Debi has caused significant damage to parts of the county.
On 10 December, there was significant damaged caused to Leitrim Village as a small tornado swept through the area during Storm Fergus.
Unsurprisingly, and similarly to previous years, Met Éireann also received some complaints regarding its general weather predictions.
On 14 March, one person complained of an “inaccurate” forecast of -2 degrees with snow. They said: “I cancelled my trip. Woke up this morning to a beautiful day. Well done.”
Another person wrote on 25 March that the day was “promised to be dry all day in Sutton, Co Dublin on the Met Éireann app”. However, they added: “After a sunny morning, there have been thundery downpours since lunchtime. Very hard to plan anything.”
On 29 April, someone complained: “How on earth can you get today’s weather so extremely wrong in Galway? Yesterday you forecasted online 80% rain all day long today, non stop. Now, hardly any rain at all today.”
In an interview with The Journal earlier this month, Met Éireann’s head of forecasting Eoin Sherlock said a new supercomputer based in Iceland should enable the forecaster to deliver more accurate forecasts at a higher frequency from the spring of 2024.
Sherlock — who took on the lead role in the forecasting division following Evelyn Cusack’s retirement — explained: “We’ll be getting the forecast every hour now. Currently, we get it roughly every three hours. That will mean our forecasts will have the most up to date forecast that you could possibly get.”
The head forecaster said the supercomputer will allow meteorologists to get more accurate predictions of how a weather event will play out.
Meanwhile, just like the last few years, Met Éireann continued to receive a significant number of complaints this year related to its website and app. An major website and app update was launched in April 2018.
Met Éireann said its app was updated this year, with the update available to download on all smartphone and tablet app stories by the end of the second week in March. Details of this new update can be read here.
Despite the regular updates, it’s evident people are still facing difficulties with the app and website.
Last year saw a large amount of complaints being made about the forecaster’s website, and although some complaints were again made about the website this year, the past 12 months saw many people contacting Met Éireann over problems they were having with the app.
In January, one person wrote to Met Éireann to tell the forecaster they were “subscribed to a number of weather categories for push notifications” on the iOS app but that they “didn’t seem to be working”.
Likewise in June, another person questions whether there was a problem with the Met Éireann app. They said: “I haven’t been receiving notifications for weather alerts.”
In a statement to The Journal, Met Éireann said there were “some issues affecting a small number of mobile devices back in March and April 2023 related to the permission protocols on Android 13+”. The forecaster said its developers “resolved this for the devices we were aware of”.
Met Éireann said it wished to “advise the users who have notification queries” that it offers an email subscription system for weather warnings.
On 19 August, someone contacted Met Éireann to question why “the small picture of Ireland” on the Met Éireann app “leaves the six counties blank?”.
“It seems a bit daft, especially as the north is covered on the RTÉ weather forecast on television,” they said.
Some other people raised concerns that the weather forecast on the app appeared to differ from that on the website.
For example, on 13 January, one person said they had “noticed many times that the forecat presented on your website is different to that presented on the app for the same location and the same date”.
“At the moment, the website shows rain for Waterford City tomorrow morning, Sat 14th January, easing off around 11am. On the app for Waterford City for the same period you have rain easing off at 4am and no rain after,” they said.
On 18 August, another person contacted Met Éireann and said: “The forecast on the app can be very different to that on your website. For example, tonight there is a yellow warning in place for Co Clare, yet the online forecast indicates there will be no rain after 12 midnight tonight.
“On the other hand, the app tells me that there will be continuous rainfall from midnight to 11am, with amounts varying from 0.2mm to 10am to 3.6mm at 2am.”
Despite these complaints, Met Éireann told The Journal that “the website and app use the same forecast data feeds so there would be no difference in the data in the display for the same forecat locations, at simultaneous times, for the same forecast service, eg. hourly forecast or text forecast”.
“Assuming locations, times and forecast service searched were the same, the reason the website may be different could probably be that it may need a cache clear on the browser,” the forecaster said.
Met Éireann also received some complaints regarding spelling issues.
On 7 May, the forecaster received a complaint from someone which said: “I’ve just watched the 9pm news and the weather forecast which followed. I was surprised to see my county listed in the weather warning with an unusual spelling of Loais instead of Laois.”
Another person complained on 26 July of abbreviations being used. They said: “I would like to bring your attention to recent weather forecasters on RTÉ One television [using] abbreviations for geographical place names.
“For example, when the forecast was given out after the news last night, the forecaster used the term ‘the Med’ when giving details of the Mediterranean. Met Éireann is a state body and one would hope the highest standards would be maintained.”
A few days later, Met Éireann received another complaint which said: “Please stop referring to public holidays as bank holidays.”
There are 10 public holidays in Ireland each year.
In its statement to The Journal, forecaster said that its “range of services and further supporting information are made available to the public via the Met Éireann website, app and social media channels”.
“Any public query arriving at the organisation is analysed and responded to, and also fed into continuous improvement processes of our services and our tools, as we are firm believers in user centric services,” it said.
Details of the complaints received by Met Éireann this year were released to The Journal under the Freedom of Information Act. Names and other identifying details of the complainants were not disclosed, in keeping with policy.
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