Weather warning lifted as Storm Abigail moves off

Met Eireann has lifted its status orange weather warning as Storm Abigail - the first officially named storm in both Ireland and the UK - has moved away to the north.

A spokeswoman said a status yellow warning “at the lower end of the scale” was now in operation. “The storm has moved away well to the North and is now over Scotland,” she said.

“It’s definitely not going to be the stormiest conditions we’re going to see for the rest of the year. There were damaging gusts in a few parts but there wasn’t anything untoward really.”

She said the status orange warning had been warranted along parts of the northwest coast earlier today due to winds, but they have now subsided.

Winds are dying down and expected to ease overnight while it will be blustery tomorrow. “It’s going to be cold and where showers do occur they will be downpours,” she said. “There is a risk of hail and thunder and you couldn’t rule out snow.”

Earlier, the status orange warning was in place for Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo and Sligo where winds in some parts reached up to 80km/h and gusted up to 120km/h.

For the rest of the country, winds peaked at 55km/h, with gusts of 100km/h. They were strongest along the coast.

At Dublin Airport there were a large number of delays and scheduled flights from Donegal, the Isle of Man (both Aer Lingus), Shetland (Eastern Airways) and Frankfurt (Lufthansa) were cancelled.

Dublin Airport has advised passengers to check their airlines for information.

Flights were arriving and departing as normal at Shannon and Cork but there were also disruptions at Knock airport.

In Galway, gardaí warned drivers to avoid the promenade in Salthill.

The Road Safety Authority has urged drivers to exercise caution when driving this evening and gardaí are warning people to stay away from exposed coasts and waterways.

Last month Met Éireann and the UK Met Office announced the results of a "name our storms" pilot project allowing the public to Christen forthcoming storms, an approach familiar in other countries.

“Abigail” was initially called that name by the UK met office alone because the potential threat to Ireland was not considered sufficient to follow suit here.

Since then conditions have worsened, and Abigail has officially become Ireland’s first named storm.

The project is designed to raise awareness of severe weather and to ensure greater safety for the public.

Storms will be named when they are deemed to have the potential to cause a substantial impact in the UK and/or Ireland.

The two meteorological authorities received thousands of suggestions for names by email and through Facebook and Twitter.

The winning monikers for storms were: Abigail, Barney, Clodagh, Desmond, Eva, Frank, Gertrude, Henry, Imogen, Jake, Katie, Lawrence, Mary, Nigel, Orla, Phil, Rhonda, Steve, Tegan, Vernon and Wendy.

The names will be used for upcoming storms, after Abigail, as and when they arrive.