Constant weather warnings issued by Met Éireann is "bordering on scaremongering" in certain instances. That's according to Independent councillor Shane P O'Reilly who believes constant warnings are creating a type of hysteria that is "frightening" to older people.
He was sharing his thoughts at this month's Cavan County Council meeting, which was attended by Evelyn Cusack, Head of Forecasting at Met Éireann.
Despite recent snow across Co Cavan, Cllr O'Reilly noted that the world "didn't stop" despite the "Armageddon" style warnings throughout the duration of the cold snap.
In her response, Evelyn Cusack said she "understands" why people are concerned, adding that the number of warnings can be "too much" for people. As a result, she revealed that Met Éireann is working towards a "localised approach" to weather and safety warnings as opposed to issuing them by individual counties.
Ms Cusack said the national forecaster is also working towards building-up impact reports and more awareness and alerts around localised flooding in the future. Ms Cusack admitted that Met Éireann is for the moment restricted to county based weather warnings and that she understands while one part of Cavan may be impacted by bad weather, other areas may be perfectly fine. She concluded that the hysteria around weather warnings has became "out of control" but noted that Met Éireann cannot control how people react or how weather reports are circulated.
