Met Éireann says 'maybe we need to do a little better' following severe flooding caused by Storm Babet

Head of forecasting at Met Éireann, Eoin Sherlock, has admitted that the National Meteorological Service could have done "a little better" with regards to weather warnings after significant flooding in parts of the country caused by Storm Babet.

The storm, for which an Orange weather warning was issued, saw over a month's worth of rain pour down in less than 24 hours.

Speaking to RTE's Morning Ireland, Mr Sherlock said the forecaster is planning to change the thresholds for weather warnings to reflect climate change, following the question, should a Red warning have been in place before the storm hit, while adding an Orange warning is "quite dangerous".

"There's only one or two millimetres between an Orange warning and a Red. I think maybe ourselves at Met Éireann, maybe we have to do a little bit better in this area."

Heavy floods due to extreme rainfall in the Midleton town of Cork, #Ireland (18.10.2023)

via Y- PeterLa v pic.twitter.com/abPY6xOiDM

— Jack Straw (@JackStr42679640) October 19, 2023

Mr Sherlock explained how Met Éireann looks back on recent weather events every ten years to evaluate and determine which events are at the highest level warnings.

"Every ten years we look at climate averages. What that means is we look at what's happened over the last 30 years, so that's 1991 to 2020 and then we do some analysis.

"So a Red alert or a Red warning would probably correspond to say the highest one per cent or two per cent of rainfall events. An Orange warning then would probably be in the ninety fifth percentile."

"We can expect more extreme rainfall because the temperature has increased", he added referring to climate change and said Met Éireann has plans to change the thresholds for weather warnings to reflect this.

Mr Sherlock said the meteorological service is looking at evaluating "Not what the weather will be , but what it will do" and "unfortunately "Storm Babet came too early for that change.

Flooding inside shop in Midleton, more awful images still being shared after a terrible day in parts of the South. Really hope we don’t see another event like this soon but sadly they are becoming more likely and a tough few months again.
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— Carlow Weather (@CarlowWeather) October 18, 2023

Mr Sherlock added that "it's very sad" to hear stories of homes and businesses that are suffering and have been affected due to the severe flooding, saying "Unfortunately what happened, it just happened in such a short period of time. The rain came down the side of the mountains, the valleys and that's what we got."