Should public events be cancelled during Red and Orange Weather Warnings?

That’s one recommendation from a new review published by the National Directorate of Fire and Emergency Management. 

The organisation was tasked with reviewing the State’s response to Storm Éowyn earlier year, which caused devastation in much of the country earlier this year. 

However, Carlow Weather’s Alan O’Reilly believes such an approach comes with enormous risks. 

 “I think the Orange Wind Warning, for some type of temporary structure events you could argue that,” he told Newstalk Breakfast. 

“But I think the real problem here is that we need to change it to be far more granular if they’re going to do that because we have seen time and time again Orange Warnings for Cork where one part of the county has a real serious weather event. 

“And another part has nothing - pretty much”.

Workers clearing a fallen tree on Grove Park Drive in Dublin following Storm Eowyn. Picture by: PA Images / Alamy.com.

Mr O’Reilly noted that weather forecasts can also change “very quickly”. 

“Gusts in excess of 110km/ph; trying to forecast that days in advance can change,” he noted. 

“So, you’re leaving yourself open to chopping and changing warnings that could cancel an event two or three hours before it’s due to start.” 

Despite this, Mr O’Reilly believes that weather forecasts could still be issued slightly earlier than they are currently. 

“If you look at this document and read it, they know that Storm Éowyn was named by the UK Met Office because they issue storm warnings four days in advance,” he said.

“Whereas Met Éireann only do it three days in advance, so I think we could learn a lot from the UK Met Office in terms of timing and also granularity.”

Main image: A woman in the rain in Cork. Picture by: AG News/Alamy Live News.