THERE ARE REPORTS of a tornado having struck counties Louth and Meath yesterday during Storm Isha.
Storm Isha has now passed but tens of thousands of people have been left without power.
The storm also had a significant impact on travel and there are also reports it brought a localised tornado.
However, Met Éireann said it is difficult to classify yesterday’s weather event across counties Louth and Meath as a tornado without visual evidence.
A Met Éireann spokesperson told The Journal that the weather conditions last night could have caused possible tornadoes in some areas, but added that “without visual evidence we can’t say for certain if it is the case for the incident in counties Louth and Meath”.
“For now, we don’t have any verified or valid evidence that tornadoes occurred anywhere in Ireland yesterday or last night,” added the Met Éireann spokesperson.
Alan O’Reilly of Carlow Weather also told The Journal that it is “very hard to say for certain without having visual evidence”.
However, O’Reilly said some of the eyewitness accounts support the theory that there was a tornado.
O’Reilly’s Carlow Weather is well-known for tracking Ireland’s weather, and he has a large social media following on the back of this.
He told The Journal that he received reports of something suspect between Ardee in Co Louth and Navan in Co Meath.
“I received a few reports at around 6.20pm yesterday,” O’Reilly told The Journal.
“The rainfall radar does show intense rainfall at the time, and the lightning detector did show lightning in the area as well.
“So it does look like there was a thunderstorm in the area at the time, which does support the risk of a tornado, but it’s still very hard to know whether it was or wasn’t.”
Met Éireann notes that “Ireland is not immune to tornadoes” and states that there are around ten a year in Ireland.
Met Éireann’s website remarks: “Even if they are sometimes referred to as ‘mini-tornadoes’, they are still tornadoes.”
Meanwhile, TORRO (The Tornado and Storm Research Organisation) issued a warning yesterday that Ireland is at risk of tornadoes.
O’Reilly of Carlow Weather also noted “one eyewitness account that water was lifted up off the ground into the air”.
“This would be evidence that there was rotation,” said O’Reilly, “which is what we look for in terms of trying to classify whether it was a tornado or not.
“You look for evidence to show rotation, rather than just strong, sudden gusts because you can get them during thunderstorms as well.
“The unique part of a tornado is the rotation in the wind, but there is a risk that it was a tornado based on the reports that I got,” said O’Reilly.
Meanwhile, O’Reilly told The Journal that there’s been an increase in the number of tornadoes in recent years, he added that it’s “also the fact that people are now reporting them on social media, and people sharing images and videos during and after has made them more high profile”.
However, he added: “We’ve always had them but certainly the warmer weather and the amount of thunderstorms that we’ve had in the last 12 months does support there being more tornadoes.”
O’Reilly also remarked that localised tornadoes seen in Ireland are generally the same as those eye-catching ones seen in countries such as the United States, “but just smaller and short-lived”.
-With additional reporting from Órla Ryan
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