Weather warnings not fit for purpose

FORECASTING the weather is not an exact science, especially for an island like Ireland, staring headlong into a vast ocean often capriciously controlled by unpredictable marine and atmospheric currents.

This makes the work of Met Éireann difficult at the best of times, and we understand that. Nonetheless, the severity of yesterday’s Storm Ali caught the general public almost entirely unprepared. The storm left two people dead, the National Ploughing Championships cancelled for the day, almost 200,000 homes and businesses left without electricity, part of the Luas line closed, and hundreds of trees blown down, leaving roads blocked.

And even though one weather station registered wind speeds that met the criteria for a red warning, Met Éireann still insists that this was only a category orange storm.

Let us take at face value Met Éireann’s explanation for why these criteria are not as absolute as they might appear on its website: it remains the case that the Irish public were not prepared for what was coming. Indeed, even Met Éireann’s Joanne Donnelly accepted this fact on RTÉ television last night.

So if the national weather service knew that Storm Ali would pack a destructive punch but the public did not, the logical conclusion is that the system of weather warnings is not fit for purpose. Ask most ordinary people what an orange light means, they will say something to the effect of ‘proceed with caution’: this is a far cry from warning of imminent and significant threat to life and property, as was warranted ahead of Storm Ali.

There is no loss of face in admitting that this system needs to be overhauled. Lifethreatening weather events merit more robust advance notice than an ambiguous orange warning – which even Met Éireann admits left the public unprepared.