Northern Ireland has been issued with a yellow weather warning for dangerous conditions as Storm Gerrit hit on Wednesday morning. Heavy rain and strong winds are predicted to last until 10:00 GMT. The storm is also expected to affect many areas across the UK with warnings in place for Scotland, England, and Wales. In Northern Ireland, some areas could experience rainfall of up to 60mm and wind speeds in the exposed parts of the Antrim coast could reach 65 to 70mph.
Inland areas are likely to experience winds ranging between 40-45mph. Sources suggest that specific regions of Northern Ireland, such as the eastern counties of Down and Antrim, could potentially see up to 30-40mm of rainfall. However, the Mournes and Antrim Hills might witness substantially higher accumulations with estimates reaching up to 60mm.
Met Éireann, the Irish weather service, has also issued weather warnings for wind and rain across Ireland. County Kerry and West County Cork have been issued with a status orange weather warning, which will remain in place until midnight on Thursday, indicating that heavy rain and showers may lead to local flooding. The rest of the Republic has been issued with a status yellow weather warning for the same period. In Galway, a status orange wind warning is in place from 18:00 (local time) on Wednesday until 06:00 on Thursday.
The arrival of Storm Gerrit marks the earliest in the season that a storm named with the letter ‘G’ has arrived. Four storm names have reached the letter G since naming began in 2015, with Storm Georgina being the previous earliest arrival date on 23rd January 2018. The latest was storm Gareth on 11th March 2019. The storm hit just a week after Storm Pia, which was named by the Danish weather service, brought strong winds to Northern Ireland
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