Met \u00c9ireann said river levels are expected to rise across Cork, Kerry, Waterford, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Carlow, Wexford, Wicklow, Kildare, Laois Offaly Kilkenny, Dublin and parts of the surrounding counties, potentially resulting in rivers exceeding their banks and flooding is expected.<\/p>\n
Met \u00c9ireann Senior Forecaster Gerry Murphy said the potential for flooding with leaves and blocked drains is “substantial”.<\/p>\n
“From my flood forecasting colleagues, the water levels in some areas are not quite as high as perhaps some times during the winter… because we are in the autumn still and we have had a dry summer,” he said.<\/p>\n
Speaking on RT\u00c9’s Morning Ireland, he added: “But there is still the potential for some of the smaller river catchments for flooding to occur, and then places where there are leaves possibly gathered and causing blocked drains as well.<\/p>\n
“So, in those counties, especially where those Orange level rainfall warnings are, there is certainly the possibility of flooding in some places.”<\/p>\n
![\"Storm](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/00253723-614.jpg\"\/)
\nMean sea level pressure and precipitation associated with Storm Austen<\/p>\n
Mr Murphy said it will be wet everywhere tonight because of the Status Yellow rain warning for all counties, but areas in south and east under the Orange warning will be worst affected.<\/p>\n
“You could be talking anywhere between 40mm and 60mm of rain in those areas with an orange rain warning, which means flooding will be likely,” he said.<\/p>\n
“So a very wet evening and night in store. Flooding is likely, and that flooding is likely to be mainly surface flooding.”<\/p>\n
Mr Murphy said Friday will be a blustery day and he warned weather conditions will be bad for those getting to work and school tomorrow.<\/p>\n
“The heaviest rain is overnight along the east coast from 2am until 8am. For rush hour, there is likely to be floods on many of the roads, and it will be a difficult enough morning in the east and in the south as well.”<\/p>\n
Mr Murphy said there will be “no real let up” from the rain over the weekend and blustery conditions are expected for Sunday’s Dublin marathon.<\/p>\n
Storm Austen was named by the UK Met Office, as the UK will see the worst impacts of the storm in relation to winds.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792653854_839_0024ee59-614.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
The National Severe Weather and Flood Coordination Group met yesterday and said local authorities had activated their severe weather assessment teams in advance of the storm.<\/p>\n
“They, along with other stakeholders, are actively preparing for all eventualities and will be ready to respond in any affected areas where needed,” the group added.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Head of the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management Keith Leonard said: “There is the potential for heavy rainfall, particularly in southern and eastern coastal counties.<\/p>\n
“Localised flooding is possible, so road users should not attempt to drive through flooded roads.<\/p>\n
“Trees remain in full leaf at this time of year, making them more vulnerable to strong winds \u2013 motorists should be alert for fallen trees, debris and difficult driving conditions, particularly during Thursday night and Friday’s morning commute.<\/p>\n
“If you need to drive during the next few days, allow extra time for essential travel.”<\/p>\n
Met \u00c9ireann, the UK Met Office and the meteorological service in the Netherlands, KNMI, launched the list of names for the 2026\/27 storm season, with each of the national partners contributing seven names, according to the forecaster.<\/p>\n
The name Austen was submitted by Met \u00c9ireann.<\/p>\n
Austen H Nagle was the first director of the Irish Meteorological Service and worked in the British Meteorological Office from 1927 to 1936.<\/p>\n
He later took up a senior post in the United States Weather Bureau.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three counties will fall under a Status Orange weather warning for intense rain later tonight as Storm Austen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-661834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661834","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=661834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}