On Sunday, Storm Ashley, the season’s inaugural storm, wreaked havoc upon Ireland, instigating chaos and leaving numerous homes powerless. The tempest didn’t just impact power supplies, but also disrupted aviation schedules — numerous flights had to be delayed, cancelled, or rerouted. The storm even catalysed hazardous conditions across coastal areas as it struck during a period of anomalously high tides.
Numerous areas experienced the brunt of Ashley, witnessing toppling trees which disrupted transportation and required municipal crews for clearing. In Co Wicklow, shelters had to be arranged for two international asylum applicants’ facilities as their tent homes fell prey to damaging winds or were imminently under threat.
Adverse weather conditions also lead to the cancellation of several sports fixtures. One noteworthy postponement was the Armagh football finale, due to a sudden blowing over of the ground’s scaffolding.
ESB Networks attended to power outages all day, predominantly in western counties—Mayo, Galway, Sligo, Clare, Cork, and Kerry—but also in Dublin where a large-scale outage in Belcamp left nearly 9,000 homes powerless. As of the afternoon, around 53,000 customers were off the grid. However, by evening, substantial restoration had been achieved, cutting the number down to nearly 29,000 without power.
As Ashley made its way north and with persistent wind warnings, ESB Networks had all hands on deck to address potential issues when safe. The possibility of customers remaining powerless overnight was anticipated, despite active efforts to restore electricity to homes, farms, and businesses.
Northern Ireland also suffered, with around 4,000 customers deprived of electricity by 5.30pm, Northern Ireland Electricity Networks reported. DAA spokesperson Graeme McQueen described the day as challenging brought about by the intense winds experienced at the Dublin Airport.
Strong winds throughout the afternoon and evening in Dublin have caused difficulty for numerous planes attempting to land, resulting in multiple diversions and unsuccessful landing attempts,” was the disclosed report.
By half-past six in the evening, there were already 27 planes that had to perform go-arounds, while another 28 decided to redirect their route to a different airport.
Storm Ashley led to multiple delays in the final matches of the GAA county.
Affected by the harsh weather conditions in Ireland and the subsequent delays at other airports across the UK and Europe, some airlines came to the decision to cancel their flights throughout the course of Sunday,” it was revealed. “Currently, around 60 flights that were scheduled to both arrive and depart from Dublin Airport have had to be cancelled.”
The weather on Monday promises improvement which would help the airport operations to return to their normal schedules, Mr McQueen informed. However, the disruptions that took place on Sunday, both at the Dublin Airport and in other locations, may potentially affect some flights.
By Sunday evening, four flights were cancelled at the Belfast International Airport. One flight was redirected to Belfast from Dublin, and two flights were diverted from Belfast to other destinations.
At Cork Airport, there were 15 cancellations and 10 flights were redirected, with three being sent to London Stansted, one to Dublin, and the rest to Shannon, as per the spokesperson’s report.
The weather on Monday is expected to be brighter and drier, with some sunny spells and occasional showers that could turn cloudier in the afternoon and evening, as shared by Met Éireann.
Temperatures of up to 15 degrees are being predicted, with moderate to fresh south-westerly winds, that could turn strong on the Atlantic coasts.
The weather forecast signals a substantial amount of dry weather in the coming few days, but more unsettled weather towards the end of the week – and thereafter, “there’s some unpredictability, however, the Bank Holiday weekend is more likely to experience some drier weather.”