MET ÉIREANN HAS defended its weather warning system after many questioned the speed of the organisation’s response to last night’s storm, which caused flooding and damage in the west and south of the country. 

Winds speeds reached between 100 kilometres per hour and 177 kilometres per hour in some areas, with hundreds of homes left without power. 

Last night, people took to Twitter to ask why Met Éireann had only issued an orange wind warning for Galway and Mayo at 8pm – with the warning set to take effect only an hour later at 9pm. 

Other people pointed out that the storm was already causing damage in the region before the predicted weather had hit. 

The Mayor of Galway of City Council, Mike Cubbard, was critical of what he said was a sluggish response from Met Éireann. 

Council crews, he told TheJournal.ie, were “caught on the hop because the warning only came from Met Éireann at 8pm”. 

“Because it was issued so late we were chasing our tails a bit,” he said. 

Galway city, especially in the docklands and Salthill area, is particularly prone to flooding and storms have caused significant damage in recent years. 

Joan Blackburn, a meteorologist in Met Éireann, said that warnings were issued long before the storm hit. 

“You must bear in mind that warnings can be updated at any hour,” she said. 

“There was a warning in place for a full 24 hours from the day before,” Blackburn added. “It specifically said that in coast areas of the south and the west that winds could be higher.”

On Tuesday morning, Met Éireann issued a yellow wind warning for Ireland – valid from 12pm on Wednesday until midnight. 

It warned of “southeast winds, later veering southerly” and said that it “will gust 90-110km/h on Wednesday, strongest in coastal areas”. 

At 10am on Wednesday, the warning was extended until 3am on Thursday. Yesterday afternoon, a Status Orange warning was issued for Cork. 

The storm, dubbed Storm Elsa by the Portuguese weather service, was not given a name by Met Éireann.

It partners with the UK Met Office and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute to label storms. 

In Ireland, a storm is named by a forecaster when orange or red level winds are expected to impact over a wide land area. However, orange or red level gusts can occur in exposed areas without the event being named.

Met Éireann updates weather warnings as it receives new information, using three colour codes of increasing levels of severity – yellow, orange and red. 

The organisation issues a Status Yellow wind warning for “widespread gusts” between 90 kilometres per hour and 110 kilometres per hour, which can be upgraded to Status Orange if wind speeds reach between 110 and 130 kilometres per hour. 

Blackburn encouraged people – especially local council staff – to contact the Met Éireann office if they had any questions or wanted more information. 

She said that the warning was issued once wind speeds reached Status Orange levels. 

“The forecast will always be updated. Warnings will always be updated. We try to issue them timely,” she said. 

“It was a pretty robust warning,” she added.