Two weather warnings for Limerick as Met Éireann predicts strong winds and heavy rain

MET Éireann has issued two status yellow weather warnings for Limerick and is warning of heavy rainfall and strong winds over the next 24 hours.

In a warning issued this Saturday afternoon, the national forecaster warned of heavy rain overnight, with some further outbreaks at times on Sunday.

It says there could be up to 40mm of rainfall in a number of counties, including Limerick, between 9pm this Saturday and 11pm on Sunday.

Meanwhile, a separate status yellow warning, which comes into effect at 1am on Sunday is warning of Southeast winds veering northwest and which are expected to reach mean wind speeds of between 55kph and 65kph with gusts of between 90kph and 110kph.

The warning, which was issued late on Friday, also applies to a number of other counties including Clare, Cork, Kerry and Waterford.

Elsewhere, a status orange snow/ice alert remains in place for thirteen counties warning of up to 8cm of snow overnight while a  status yellow alert is place for a further eight counties.

UPDATE ON NATIONAL WEATHER.https://t.co/9BeK3UcAwO

— Met Éireann (@MetEireann) December 9, 2017

While the snow/ice warnings do not extend to Limerick, gardai, the road safety authority and AA Roadwatch are appealing to all motorists to exercise caution if driving this weekend.

Gritting and salting machines were deployed on Friday night across the road network which accounts for almost 85% of all Limerick’s traffic.

Duty engineers in Limerick City and County Council are monitoring the ice-cast daily to determine whether gritting is required and will be monitoring weather conditions very closely for the remainder of the weekend.