Lock up your suncream. Fold away your paisley-patterned shorts - now slightly faded from the glut of sun they've basked in. Disassemble your barbecues; slash the rubber-buttresses of your inflatable paddling pool and watch the now grimy water leak back into the earth. The summer is over. The haze of sunshine that we, at first loved, then grew to tolerate, and now have come to take for granted, is over. Prepare your summertime eulogies for the rains are returning.
And this is surely a good thing. It is high time that the parched expanse of land that once passed for the verdant plains of Ireland gets drizzled on to stop it becoming some arid dystopian hell-scape (with the exception of Carlow which, to be fair, was something of a hell-scape already, drought or no drought.)
Met Éireann have issued a status yellow rainfall warning for Connacht, Donegal, Clare, Cork, Kerry and Limerick. They are forecasting that "Rain will turn heavy and persistent on Friday and Friday night bringing the risk of localised flooding." That, my friend, used to be the bread and butter of Irish summers. Weather that we would take in our stride, barely worth remarking on. We would leave our houses, atop hastily assembled and improvised rafts, to fjord the raging torrents of water where our roads once were, fork lightning smashing into the ground around us, setting fire to bushels, and we would not complain. We would not bat an eyelid, for that was what passed for summer.
With this announcement, those of a compassionate disposition may spare a thought for that significant portion of the population who've elected to gather in a large field in Laois to spend the weekend living in fabric accommodation. However, those of a more callous nature - perhaps those who tried and failed to get tickets for the aforementioned Laois-based fabric-dwelling event - may revel at this announcement which, although not including Laois in its forecast, will undoubtedly affect festival-goers.
Status Yellow- Rainfall warning issued for Connacht, Donegal, Clare, Cork, Kerry and Limerick
Valid from 06:00 hours Fri, 30-Aug-2019 until 06:00 hours Sat, 31-Aug-2019 pic.twitter.com/7aaOKY151N
— Met Éireann (@MetEireann) August 29, 2019
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While this warning does not include Laois yet, the current weather forecast from Met Éireann for Stradbally says there'll be rain during Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with heavy rain on both Friday night and Saturday evening.
