Power being restored to thousands following overnight winds

Several thousand homes are without power this morning (Tuesday, December 18) following severe winds overnight, according to ESB Networks.

The south and south-east of the country was worst affected by the windy conditions with counties Wicklow, Carlow, Kilkenny and parts of Cork experiencing outages as a result.

6,000 homes were without power earlier in the morning but this figure has since come down, according to an ESB spokesperson, who added that such incidents are not unusual for this time of the year.

Efforts are currently ongoing to return power and it is hoped that power will be restored everywhere by lunchtime, the representative added.

Today’s weather

Meanwhile, this morning will see rain and fresh winds affect parts of the east for a time yet with spot flooding, according to Met Eireann.

However, the rain will clear later in the morning and the southwesterly winds will ease, as brighter conditions further west extend to all areas through the day.

Some scattered showers are expected to follow too though. It will be cool, with highest temperatures of 6° to 9°.

There will be scattered showers with clear spells tonight. The showers will become heavy and frequent later in the west but there will be a lot of dry weather elsewhere.

Southwest winds will be moderate to fresh in the east, but fresh or strong in western parts and very blustery near the coast.

It will be cold, with lowest temperatures of 3° and 5°, with a touch of ground frost possible locally for a time in the east.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow will be cool and blustery with sunny spells and scattered rain and hail showers, prolonged at times in the west with some heavy thundery bursts likely.

Top temperatures will stay around 7° to 9°, in fresh and gusty southwest winds, stronger near coasts.