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FORECASTERS IN IRELAND and the UK are working on a scheme to start naming North Atlantic storms — and the new regime could be in place within a few months.
Head of Forecasting at Met Éireann Gerald Fleming told TheJournal.ie talks with the UK Met Office were at an advanced stage.
Neither weather service gives names to low pressure systems currently.
On the continent, an unofficial naming regime is run by the Free University in Berlin.
On other occasions, media outlets simply name storms after the nearest saint’s day or anniversary (hence, last February’s monster ‘Darwin’ system — so-called because it fell on the anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth).
“We’re currently in discussions with our neighbours in Britain — because we share the same storms by and large with the UK, and we share the same language, and in sense we share the same media very often,” Fleming explained.
“If we have a name on the storm people know what we’re talking about — we don’t just have to say ‘that storm that passed us by on the 14th of January last’ or something like that.
It will give it some personality and it will allow people to relate to it more easily, because — particularly in a winter like last winter when we had so many storms — it will make it a little more easy to distinguish between them.
Ready for the worst
In terms of the country’s preparedness for whatever nasty weather might befall us in January and February — we are, according to Fleming “an awful lot more ready than we used to be”.
As part of his job, Fleming sits on the Government’s Emergency Planning Committee — the wide-ranging panel that also includes officials from the Defence Forces, the Gardaí, the Coast Guard, the OPW, and a multitude of other departments and agencies.
He was heading off to one of their meetings after his sit-down chat at our newsroom last Thursday, in fact (nothing to worry about, he said — just a regular check-in to make sure all their plans are up-to-date).
The country’s forecasting chief gave us a run-through of how that body works, how they interact with the Cabinet and the Taoiseach during severe weather episodes … and what they do if local authorities decide to ‘press the emergency button’.
‘A very good night to you’
Finally…
It’s years since Fleming last appeared on our TV screens to give a forecast — but we couldn’t let the poor man depart our offices without asking him to do this….
For those of you who chose to read this article purely in the interests of meteorological research click away now…
This is the fluffy, final bit of our interview when we asked ‘what’s it like to be a science-y Martin King’ and other similarly hard-hitting questions.
Video: Michelle Hennessy
First published 8.30am
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I booked with them for a family holiday last may and the service was great. I got an email last Friday with a sale notice and was going to book again, but there were no flights listed for next year. Thank god I didn’t.
Chances are they knew what was about to happen, and still allowed sale emails to go out to customers… surely that’s illegal!
Yeah got that too “up to 60% off” on Friday in my inbox.. I hope no one got stiffed with that one.
Only on Wednesday night last week were we looking for somewhere for October, decided we’d book a deal we saw for Portugal and we’d pay for it at the end of the month. So lucky but they would have taken payment for the holiday had we had it at the time, surely they must have known at that stage?
Why not just call visa and claim your money back?
I went onto aer lingus earlier, my flights are confirmed, called the hotel, my hotel booking is not. Called ulster bank (visa debit) and asked for a chargeback on the hotel reservation. filled out the form online, they said it should be fine and will get back to me
@iamahorse, where did you find the form online? I have been on to them via phone, twitter and called to my branch in person. Still no form. Getting antsy.
It is illegal for any company to continue to trade when they are knowingly insolvent. ..The Directors are liable under the Companies Act and can face criminal charges. It is a long drawn out process and I cannot think of anyone doing time for such an offence in this country
Why people don’t book flights and hotels themselves with all the websites out there il never know. Far too risky booking through travel agents.
Convenience
To be honest, for me, it worked out cheaper. This wasn’t a travel agent I went to, it was the website itself, so I did the research and it came back about 200 euro less than booking everything seperately myself. That was including transfers and all that extra stuff. Plus there was a rep on site and kids clubs etc. (not that we used them), So for a quick family vacation, this would be the way to go.
Nah, flight, hotel, taxi, job done. No worries, no bus tour of the south of Spain
Guru you’re slagging people for being lazy, see you wont even learn how to code!
Excuse me Mumpsimus, travel agents offer protection in incidences like this. My own company for example, doesn’t pay for accommodation until the client has travelled, thus protecting the customers money completely. I have liased directly with hotels and reprotected all my clients holidays and no one is out of pocket. So don’t blame “travel agents” for this. Low-cost Holidays is a huge company with many branches in accommodation only, flights, packages, they are at fault, not the general travel agencies, many of whom are also suffering the fall out from this.
If you book it yourself you won’t have the protections you would if you had booked through a travel agent.
That’s what travel insurance in for.
If you paid by credit card you can get your money back up to 60 days after the transaction. Charge back department. They might try fob you off but persist, they are obliged by law to refund for goods or services not received. They might try to get you you are not entitled to claim as the agency are bonded but register the claim and then you are covered for any outstanding amount no matter how long the claim takes to process.
Going away next month and had to pay hotel again but Royal Bank of Scotland said they will refund me. Let’s wait and see!
Just as well I booked with clickandgo !!
There are a lot of people out there who don’t mind paying a substantial extra sum of money to have someone else do the organising and worrying for them, and while some know the extra costs involved others are blissfully unaware of how much they could save by doing the trawling themselves but others are equally unaware of how much difference there is between one company and another. LCH were never at the races in the price war ! No intention of sharing my bag of tricks here as I am selfish beyond repentance, but there’s a lotta eejits out there too ! To each his/her own ! There were a lot of worried accommodation owners where I was last week because of the low value of sterling and the fact that it makes accommodation more expensive for people travelling on pounds or companies buying with a strong Sterling , but I assume the season’s requirements were bought forward ? Or maybe not. I would hate to tell you how much I paid as against how much I was quoted for a “package” … being the high season ya know… fair enough, if you have to go at a certain time, no flexibility, kids off school, and you must have THAT Gaff, well it is the seller’s market ! So sorry for those who get caught up in the mire of the back office finances of these big companies and I hope they are successful in getting a refund or an alternative holiday.
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