Storm Amy
It’s been an interesting couple of days while Storm Amy worked its way over the island of Ireland and on to Scotland. The worst hit County in the Republic was Donegal but even here in the shelter of County Kidlare there were gusts over 100 hm/h on Friday, and quite a lot of rain as you can see from the first two radar* plots above. Quite a few people, quite reasonably if they were heading towards the weather, went home a bit early on Friday.
Initially the wind was southerly, and it felt surprisingly warm, despite the rain, but by this morning it had veered westerly, the rain had turned to showers, and the wind has now moderated substantially.
I spent some time this afternoon clearing up leaves and small branches that had fallen during the storm, as well as looking for signs of damage. But all’s well. No power cuts either. My big worry however is this tree just outside my house:
It is far too tall for its location, and has been leaning alarmingly for some time. If it topples in the direction it is leaning it will hit my house. I’ve been on to Kildare County Council a few times about it, actually. I don’t want them to chop it down, but I do think they should cut back the upper branches so that if it falls it won’t hit either mine or my neighbour’s house. Unfortunately, they’ve refused to do anything at all. Time for another go at them, I think. It will cost them a lot less to deal with it now than the sum they will have to pay me if serious damage is caused by their negligence.
*In case you’re interested, Met Éireann’s weather radars are located at Dublin and Shannon, and operate at 5.64 GHz (C-band).
In the Dark 
October 4, 2025 at 8:07 pm
It’s been quite mild down here in Cork – rain for a couple of days, nothing unusual. We have bigger problems: the unresolved question of the hornet invasion, not to mention the sudden bird flu on the Lough. Perhaps only a problem for the ducks for now, but later on …?
October 5, 2025 at 12:18 pm
If you have hornets on your property you really need to get rid of them ASAP. We had a nest a few years ago, and the pest control person who removed it said that by late autumn they get very aggressive.
October 5, 2025 at 12:41 pm
The “we” was Cork City, not my particular piece of it. But yes, getting rid of them is a priority!
October 5, 2025 at 3:06 pm
It certainly was for us – the nest was at the top of the house, directly above the front door. It was spotted by a neighbour, thank goodness! The pest control person said given their closeness to the front door, we would have been tortured by them. Hopefully the Cork City Council (or whatever its called) will deal with them. We had to pay for ours to be removed, as our local council doesn’t pay for pest control.