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| Coastal Watches/Warnings and 5-Day Forecast Cone for Storm Center. Image NOAA |
The remnants of Category 4 Hurricane Gonzalo, which is presently packing 220kph winds in the Caribbean, is forecast to track close to Ireland early next week. Forecasters say however, that the system will have lost much of its energy by the time it crosses the Atlantic.
The US National Hurricane Center, which monitors storm activity in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, says the centre of the system is likely to track to the northwest of the country on Monday night.
The US National Hurricane Center, which monitors storm activity in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, says the centre of the system is likely to track to the northwest of the country on Monday night.
By then the system will have become an ex-tropical storm but winds could still reach up to 100kph in parts of the west and northwest of the country. The system will also be accompanied by a period of heavy rain as it passes to the northwest of Ireland.
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| Ogimet.com GFS output for midnight on Monday night |
Met Éireann is warning of wet and windy weather everywhere on Monday night.
Meanwhile, Long range forecaster for Irish Weather Online, Peter O'Connell is forecasting "an interval of blustery weather (remnants of Gonzalo) overnight Monday into Tuesday morning, with the moderate daytime westerly winds increasing to near gale force at times."
O'Donnell says there will be gusts of up to 70 km/hr by daytime but as high as 110 km/hr in exposed northern areas by late Monday evening through early morning Tuesday. Westnorthwest winds will gust to between 60 and 100kph during Tuesday.Ahead of the arrival of the ex-hurricane, forecasters are warning of a large swell along western and southern Irish coasts as a result of a large cyclone to the west of Ireland (see first image below). Next week's system is not expected to create a significant swell.
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| EUMETSAT image from Wednesday showing a large swirl of low pressure to the west of Ireland |
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NOAA wind intensity chartNOAA wind intensity chartNOAA wind intensity chart |
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| CAT 4 Hurricnae Gonzola as captured from space by NOAA today |