A NUMBER OF popular Irish meteorology accounts have sprung up on social media in recent years, perhaps proving that Irish people really do love to talk about the weather.
Although most of the accounts appear to be run by amateur weather enthusiasts, some have amassed hundreds of thousands of followers.
In one case, a Facebook account called Ireland’s Weather Channel has even been issuing its own weather warnings to its 105,000 followers, independently of the national forecaster Met Éireann.
On 3 January, the Facebook account posted a string of weather warnings about snowfall.
The post began:
“Having carefully reviewed the overnight suite of weather models and using our experience forecasting severe winter weather Ireland’s Weather Channel is issuing a Status Red Snowfall warning across much of inland Munster, the Midlands and parts of Wicklow, with a Status Orange Snowfall warning through the Midwest, parts of Leinster and other inland areas of Munster.”
Met Éireann has not issued a Status Red warning during the recent cold snap.
Ireland’s Weather Channel is run by climate scientist Cathal Nolan, who has ambitions to create a private weather service to rival the national forecaster.
According to a GoFundMe page set up to raise money for the endeavour, Ireland’s Weather Channel “has delivered forecasts to the general public for just over a decade, providing honest, accurate forecasts to a wide audience and helping you plan for the uncertainty Irish weather can throw at us from time to time”.
Nolan asked people to consider supporting his efforts “so that we can purchase the required equipment and build a platform that will deliver higher quality forecasts free of charge to you the public, all at the touch of a button”.
The page has now stopped accepting donations after it raised €5,270.
“It’s been my dream to become a weather forecaster, ever since I was 5 years old. That dream still burns within me except now I wish to build Ireland’s first Independent forecast service,” Nolan said.
Another popular online forecaster, with accounts on a range of social media platforms, is Carlow Weather, which is run by amateur meteorologist Alan O’Reilly.
O’Reilly operates the Carlow Weather accounts out of a love for the subject. He provides weather updates and forecasts for hundreds of thousands of followers across Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok and Bluesky.
He started off with what he called a “cheap and cheerful” forecasting setup, but has since upgraded his weather station.
O’Reilly subscribes to weather modelling services and also uses many of the freely available ones in order to compile his data and make predictions.
As well as forecasts and updates, Carlow Weather often shares photography and videos related to Irish weather.
* The Big Snow of 2025 on the Galtees * Brothers Tom John William & their nephew Billy Cunningham along with their Hill Sheep Farming Neighbours are out on the Galtees with the last few days digging out their sheep who have been trapped in what has been the worst snow fall in… pic.twitter.com/zpv5HrSkMW
— Carlow Weather (@CarlowWeather) January 10, 2025
Unlike Cathal Nolan of Ireland’s Weather Channel, O’Reilly does not have plans to make a career in forecasting.
“I’m a hobbyist,” he told The Journal, adding that he’s never claimed to be a professional meteorologist.
“I try and show the different possibilities” while also making things relatable to his followers.
He is critical of some of the other weather accounts when it comes to their forecasting, describing some of their reports as “scaremongering”, although he stressed that most are “very level-headed and very good”.
“There are a few accounts very similar to mine, but there are a few who like to share the worst case scenario,” he said.
“That’s on them, but some elderly people get scared” by exaggerated predictions, he said.
Although he has issues with the current county-by-county warning system, which he would like to be more geographically specific, O’Reilly said that weather warnings from non-official sources can cause confusion.
“Commenting on warnings is fine but making your own is a bit silly.”
Met Éireann’s warning system has come in for some criticism in the political sphere during the latest cold snap, which has brought heavy snowfall, treacherous travel conditions, power outages and the closure of schools.
“Issuing a status Orange low temperature warning for a temperature of -5 is crazy,” Áontu leader Peadar Tóibín said in a social media post on Wednesday.
“People should take care on the roads & mind older friends & family but this is not abnormal winter weather.”
Additionally, as Alan O’Reilly of Carlow Weather said, some have been critical of the fact that Met Éireann’s warnings are tied to counties.
O’Reilly pointed out that someone just over the border of a county that has a weather warning may experience the same conditions despite there being no warning for their county.
I know that the Irish people love talking about the weather,
— Peadar Tóibín TD (@Toibin1) January 8, 2025
but issuing a status Orange low temperature warning for a temperature of -5 is crazy.
People should take care on the roads & mind older friends & family but this is not abnormal winter weather.
The head of forecasting at Met Éireann, Eoin Sherlock, explained the service’s warning system on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme on Friday, when he was asked if the county-based warning system could be more accurate.
“At the moment, all the warnings are issued on a county basis, and that’s because of the Major Emergency Management Framework set up in the country,” Sherlock said.
“So we do issue warnings at a county level for that, for that reason. But the same time, if you go into our app, you get a personalised, localised forecast for your exact location, so that will give you additional information about the expected conditions for your location,” he said.
While the warnings are done on a county-by-county basis, Sherlock said that Met Éireann does sometimes offer more specific advice, such as during Storm Bert.
“We gave people a bit more indication, West Galway and West Cork, that’s where we expected the biggest impacts to be. But we do provide that information,” he said.
“And I suppose more importantly, we give this information during the National Emergency Coordination Group meetings, where we inform the local authorities where we expect the biggest impacts to be.”
He defended the issuing of orange warnings in the last week.
“We had an orange snow storm, or snow events this week, and maybe some people didn’t think it would be as impactful. But as we can see, the impacts have been very bad. Parts of the country still have snow, so that kind of validates the warning system on the county basis.”
Sherlock also said that Met Éireann is investing in new equipment that will improve their forecasting ability.
Those investments include Met Éireann’s new supercomputer and a research programme in partnership with University College Dublin focused on machine learning and artificial intelligence.
“That’s going to help us improve our weather forecasts,” Sherlock said.
Met Éireann was approached by The Journal about this article and declined to comment.
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