WEATHER ALERT: Batten down the hatches – Storm Hannah is coming

LAST weekend’s glorious Easter Bank Holiday weekend will be sadly long forgotten by tomorrow night when Storm Hannah hits Kilkenny.

Met Éireann today issued separate orange and yellow wind warnings covering most parts of the country, and a small craft warning for the Irish Sea.

Kilkenny is among the counties included in the Status Yellow warning, along with our neighbours in Carlow, Waterford, Wexford, Laois, and Tipperary. The warning, which comes into effect from 11pm tomorrow until 9am on Saturday, also includes Kildare, Wicklow, Longford, Offaly and Donegal.

But the worst of the weather is expected to hit Clare, Cork, Kerry and Limerick, where households and businesses have been warned to prepare for power outages and fallen cables as they brace themselves for severe gales of up to 130km/hr.

Storm Hannah is currently heading our way from Newfoundland and is expected to “deepen” – or worsen – as it crosses the Atlantic before making landfall in the Shannon Estuary tomorrow night before sweeping across the country and through Kilkenny before moving on to Wexford.

A Status Orange wind alert has been issued for the south and west from 4pm tomorrow to 5am on Saturday.

While there is some respite predicted for Saturday, it will feel cold with some scattered showers, and temperatures between 9 and 12C.

But the rain is set to return on Sunday, with “patchy” showers and drizzle in many areas and cloud cover giving highest temperatures of about 16C.