{"id":658278,"date":"2026-10-18T08:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T08:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/658278\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T08:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T08:46:10","slug":"met-eireann-in-scramble-to-save-amateur-weather-watchers-network-from-shutdown-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/658278\/","title":{"rendered":"Met \u00c9ireann in scramble to save amateur weather watchers\u2019 network from shutdown \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ask Sean Rima what the weather is like out his way and he will ask: where exactly? <\/p>\n

Across the hills, lakes and valleys of Connemara, four seasons in one day doesn\u2019t quite cover the variety of weather Atlantic forces can bring. <\/p>\n

A kaleidoscope comes closer to describing the rapid changes that can affect conditions in highly localised patches. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can be looking at the Clifden station and it\u2019s pouring with rain and I look out the window here and it\u2019s bright sunshine,\u201d he says of the weather station data coming from less than 20km away as the crow flies from his home in Renvyle, Co Galway. \u201cIt\u2019s interesting to watch the way the weather moves.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rima is one of about 150 amateur weather watchers in Ireland whose private weather stations feed information continually to Met \u00c9ireann on the Wow (Weather Observations Website) network. <\/p>\n

The data is not official as there are too many variations in the type of equipment used to quality-control them all. <\/p>\n

But Wow is an important supplement to the 25 official Met \u00c9ireann<\/a> weather stations around the State. <\/p>\n

Met \u00c9ireann says these contribute to \u201cbetter forecasts, more accurate warnings and a deeper understanding of our changing climate\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt fills the gaps in coverage,\u201d says Noel Fitzpatrick, acting head of observations. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also useful to consult where there is a particular weather event taking place, to check the progress of a weather front or incoming severe weather.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Archaeologists discover and \u2018rediscover\u2019 two neolithic tombs in GalwayOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

But Met \u00c9ireann will soon lose access to Wow after a decision by its UK hosts to discontinue the platform. <\/p>\n

The UK Met Office established it and watched it grow into an international network but it says ageing technology means it can no longer be supported and it will shut down in December. <\/p>\n

Met \u00c9ireann is working with other EU states to develop a replacement platform. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are cautiously looking at early 2027 [as a start date],\u201d Fitzpatrick says. \u201cWe want to minimise the downtime between the current system and its replacement.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"EquipmentEquipment at Sean Rima’s weather station. Photograph: Enda O’Dowd\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

Wow contributors include schools, sports clubs and some public bodies but mostly they are individuals, often with a combined interest in weather and technology. <\/p>\n

PJ Naughter, a software developer from Ballygarrett in Co Wexford, fits that description perfectly. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not hard to set up a weather station. Anyone can get a good one for a couple of hundred euro \u2013 although you can spend thousands if you want,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve connected mine to a network in the US and other international ones so you\u2019re feeding information from Wexford all around the world.\u201d <\/p>\n

He gets plenty in return too, recalling the Tonga volcano eruption in 2022 that was so violent, it upset atmospheric pressure worldwide. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou could see the pressure waves approaching Ireland,\u201d he says. \u201cThe first wave approached after about five hours and the second one from the other direction came after about 11 hours. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou could see it happening in real time just by watching the data on the websites.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Powerful storms are more common\u2019: Threat of rising sea levels and coast erosion in GalwayOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Sean Rima is more interested in local phenomena and collates data from 10 stations he and other enthusiasts installed around west Galway. <\/p>\n

Posting on the connemaraweather.eu<\/a> website as well as Wow, they track conditions far from the official stations at Mace Head and Galway city. <\/p>\n

\u201cI used to sail on the Killary so I always needed to know what the weather was doing,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow I fly a drone to take photographs so I can look at an area before I head out and see what the last 10 or 20 minutes have been doing. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have a station out on Inishturk and one on Inishbofin because whatever happens out there eventually comes to us.\u201d <\/p>\n

Met \u00c9ireann is working to add extra weather stations to its own network, but Noel Fitzpatrick believes the local stations will always be important. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a very varied country and that affects weather locally even within short distances,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can have substantial variability whether you are in an exposed area, on the side of a hill or in a valley. That\u2019s the kind of information Wow supplies.\u201d <\/p>\n

Scientific value aside, the Wow site is also a beacon for weather enthusiasts who just want to prove a point. <\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve ever wondered why it feels warmer or colder in your corner of the country than officially forecast, the chances are a check on a local weather station on the Wow website will prove you are not imagining things. <\/p>\n

The website wow.met.ie has a map where all the weather stations can be clicked to check current conditions and past conditions \u2013 in some cases going back several years. <\/p>\n

At the minimum, they record air temperature but many also relay data on humidity, rainfall, pressure, wind speed, direction and gust strength and soil temperature.<\/p>\n

The data will not be transferred to whatever platform replaces Wow so Met \u00c9ireann is encouraging anyone who wants to archive past information in graph or table form to download it from the site before the network is shut down. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ask Sean Rima what the weather is like out his way and he will ask: where exactly? Across…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4500,42,1191,43,40,38,41,39,18335,9270],"class_list":["post-658278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-galway","tag-headlines","tag-met-eireann","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-weather-events","tag-wexford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}