There was heavy rain in the east of the country overnight as Ireland prepares for the arrival of Storm Austen on Thursday, when the country is on notice for widespread downpours.
Wednesday will have a wet and windy start, according to Met Éireann. However, the overnight rain will have cleared in most areas except for east Ulster by late morning.
There will be spells of sunshine with scattered showers on a “blustery day”.
Thursday will start out dry with sunny spells and scattered showers before a nationwide status yellow rain warning comes into effect at 7pm, lasting until 8am on Friday.
Thursday night will be very wet, windy and stormy according to the national forecaster.
Widespread heavy and persistent rain will affect much of the country with some flooding expected across southern and eastern counties.
Isolated thunderstorms will occur too. “Cyclonic variable winds” will veer northwest and further strengthen overnight, reaching gale force in places. Lowest temperatures of 5 to 8 degrees are forecast.
Storm Austen is the first named storm of the 2026/2027 season.
Aoife Kealy, deputy head of forecasts at Met Éireann, said Storm Austen will develop in the Atlantic Ocean.
“It’s getting help basically from a strong jet stream. So it’s deepening as it approaches western Europe and the UK,” she said.
“As it passes to the south of us, it’s going to bring that strong or heavy rain and potentially some strong winds.”
She said the strongest will be felt in the UK. Warnings could potentially be updated on Wednesday or Thursday as the track of the storm becomes clearer.
Kealy said “even small differences in exactly how the low pressure will track are going to make a big difference to where the worst of the weather is on Thursday night and Friday”.
“It’s hard to pinpoint any one area just at the moment” where conditions may be worse, she said.
“There’s potential for heavy rain right across the country and potential for strong winds as well. The winds look likely to be in the south, the strongest of the winds, closest to the low [pressure].
“But we could see those strong winds everywhere and, as I said, we’re generally going to see a very wet night and even a wet start to Friday.”
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She advised people to stay up to date with the latest information from Met Éireann.
The name Austen was chosen by Met Éireann in tribute to Austen H Nagle, who became the first director of the Irish Meteorological Service when he was appointed in 1936.
On Friday, lingering wet and windy weather will clear eastern counties by around midmorning.
Sunshine and well-scattered blustery showers elsewhere will follow for the rest of the day, mainly affecting western counties.