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Ireland is currently being battered by Storm Doris, with 120kph winds resulting in power outages all over the country.
The ESB has reported that multiple geographical zones are suffering power outages as a result of Storm Doris, with affected areas stretching from Lucan in the east to Castlebar in the west.
46,000 customers are currently without power, with major problems emerging in Galway, Mayo, Leitrim, Sligo and Dublin.
The latest area to suffer a large fault was the Buncrana region of Donegal, with ESB offering customers updates on its website here.
The affected areas are: Balbriggan, Lucan, Celbridge, Mulhuddart, Navan, Duleek, Drogheda, Castlebar, Tuam, Carrickmacross, Monaghan, Cavan, Roscommon, Sligo and Leitrim.
There are 100 separate outages, according to Bernardine Maloney, ESB’s corporate communications manager. She told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme that ESB technicians have been working on the problems since last night, and that power restoration would not be complete until “well into the day”.
#StormDoris looks like it will be largely an East Coast event heres the 6am wind chart keep an eye on @MetEireann for updates #staysafe pic.twitter.com/7fwk5YTyW2
— ESB Networks (@ESBNetworks) February 22, 2017
Met Éireann predicts that winds will remain for several hours before fading later in the day. Gale-force north-west winds, and some severe and damaging gusts will continue in the meantime.
In the UK, the Met Office has called Storm Doris a ‘weather bomb’, rapidly deepening in the past 24 hours.
#StormDoris has rapidly deepened over the last 24 hours as it has under gone what we call Explosive Cyclogenisis making it a #WeatherBomb pic.twitter.com/U7VI7WDGtT
— Met Office (@metoffice) February 23, 2017
According to the organisation, a weather bomb is defined as an “intense low pressure system with a central pressure that falls 24 millibars in a 24-hour period”.
“A better description can be more directly linked to the meteorological phenomena known as rapid or explosive cyclogenesis. This is where dry air from the stratosphere flows into an area of low pressure.
“This causes air within the depression to rise very quickly and increases its rotation, which, in turn, deepens the pressure and creates a more vigorous storm.”
