LAST UPDATE | 31 Oct 2023

IT’S SET TO be a rainy Halloween night and a few days to come with weather warnings issued for multiple areas of the country ahead Storm Ciarán arrival. 

A Status Yellow rain warning for Co Kerry will kick in at 12pm today and remain in place until 12pm tomorrow. 

A Status Yellow wind warning has also been issued for Clare, Kerry and Galway. This will come into effect at 5am and remain in place until 11am tomorrow. 

Another Status Yellow rain warning has been issued for Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Wicklow, Cork and Waterford. This will kick in at 7pm tomorrow and remain in place until 7am on Thursday. 

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has urged road users to exercise caution until all warnings have expired.

In the North, the UK’s Met Office has issued a Yellow rain warning for the six counties for between 9pm tonight and 9am tomorrow. 

Storm Ciarán, caused by a deep area of low pressure, was named by the UK Met Office on Sunday. Its predecessors, Storm Agnes and Storm Babet, saw significant disruption and damage caused by flooding.

In a weather advisory, Met Éireann has said there will be heavy showers or longer spells of rain at times today and tomorrow with flooding likely in places, as soils are saturated and river levels are high. 

Later tomorrow and on Thursday, further rainfall associated with Storm Ciarán may lead to flooding. 

Met Éireann has said it is likely the heaviest rain will be in the southern and eastern coastal counties. 

This could lead to poor visibility and difficult, dangerous driving conditions. 

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There was significant flooding in Wexford last night that caused some homes to be flooded. 

In the North, the public has been advised by the PSNI to avoid Newry City after flooding that has been described as “biblical” by a local MLA.

The PSNI has also cautioned motorists to take extra precautions when driving due to heavy overnight rainfall which has left some roads in a hazardous condition.

Speaking to The Journal, SDLP MLA Justin McNulty said businesses have been “devastated” by the flooding.

He has a constituency office close to Newry’s Sugar Island, which has borne the brunt of the city’s flooding.