BREAKING: Ireland's 80-year-old gust record (recorded in Limerick) is broken during Storm Éowyn
Record tumbles as severe storm continues to rampage
AN EIGHTY year weather record which belonged to Limerick has been smashed this morning, Met Eireann have said.
Provisional figures recorded by the forecaster overnight suggest Storm Éowyn is the strongest-ever storm to pass over Ireland.
Senior forecaster Gerry Murphy said the previous wind speed records - dating back to 1945 at Foynes in Limerick - have been broken.
"Storm Éowyn is an extreme storm and it has already broken records for the all-time mean wind speed and all-time gust speed for Ireland. At 4am, at Mace Head (County Galway) we had a mean speed of135km/h which breaks the previous record of 131 and at 5am, at Mace Head as well, we had a gust of 183km/h which breaks the previous record of 182," he said.
With status red warnings now in place for the entire country, Met Éireann says the worst is still to come in some counties.#
"It's extremely windy everywhere - everywhere is now in a red warning and because of the very extreme winds a red warning has to be taken very seriously but this is a very very serious storm. The winds are very very strong and as you would expect, they are strongest over the western half of the country but they are going to be very strong right up through the midlands as well," said Mr Murphy.
"From Shannon right across to Dublin and right the way up north of that, extreme winds for the areas can be expected. Obviously, the north west will get the most extreme winds but everywhere is getting winds that are much stronger than they would normally get," he added.
The gust speed recorded at Shannon Airport this Friday morning at 5am was 137 kilometres per hour.