PEOPLE across Ireland are being warned to ‘stay safe’ and only travel if necessary as Storm Jocelyn is set to hit the region today.
The storm, which lands across the island this afternoon, comes hot on the heels of Storm Isha which devastated many areas over the weekend.
The clean-up operation is still underway across parts of Northern Ireland and the Republic, following that storm, where thousands of homes were left without power and people faced significant obstruction on roads to due to debris.
In Northern Ireland NIE Networks’ engineers and emergency crews having been working around the clock to restore power to their customers but roughly 7000 of them remain without supply, it was confirmed today.
A car damaged by a fallen tree in Belfast, following Storm IshaEarlier today the Met Office issued a yellow weather warning, confirming that Storm Jocelyn is expected to bring strong winds to the North from 4pm today.
Met Office Chief Meteorologist, Steve Willington, said: “Although this system will be a step down relative to Storm Isha, with the damage and clean up still underway, we could potentially see more impacts from Storm Jocelyn.”
That warning will remain in place until 1pm tomorrow (Wednesday), with Northern Ireland’s Department for Infrastructure urging residents to “stay safe” and only make necessary journeys.
“The advice is to consider if your journey is necessary and to be aware there is a high risk of fallen trees, branches or other debris on the road,” they state.
“The clear-up operation following Storm Isha continues, to address the remaining obstructions on the road and significant interruptions to electricity supplies,” they added.
“Further disruption is expected.”
Damage caused by a fallen tree at St Joseph's Church graveyard in Glenavy during Storm IshaIn the Republic of Ireland Met Éireann issued a string of weather warnings for counties across the country ahead of the arrival of Storm Jocelyn today, which is expected to bring “very strong southwest to west winds with severe and damaging gusts”.
A yellow wind warning issued for Clare, Kerry, Galway and Mayo issued this morning is in place from 10am today until 2am tomorrow morning (Wednesday).
An orange wind warning for Donegal takes effect from 6pm this evening and will be in place until 2am tomorrow morning.
Yellow wind warnings are also in place form leinster, Cavan, Monagahn, Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford and Roscommon from 2pm today until 2am tomorrow morning.
The weather warnings came as Ireland continues its own clean-up after Storm Isha, which left hundreds of thousands of people without power yesterday.
Firefighters attend a property in Dublin as the clean-up operation continues after Storm IshaToday around 57,000 customers are still without power, while more than 178,000 premises have had their power restored by ESB Networks.
Met Éireann meteorologist Aoife Kealy has said that Storm Jocelyn may further damage structures already impacted by Storm Isha and urged the public to be mindful of what’s coming.
“Even in areas that aren't under an orange warning, it is important to note that it is going to be very windy, and again, there might be trees and so on that have been weakened by the storm over the weekend,” she said.
"And whereas the storm of this magnitude might not necessarily always be this impactful, the fact that it's following so quickly on the heels of storm Isha is making it even more difficult.”
