Storm Desmond Flooding Swinford
There has been some serious flooding here in the Swinford area as a result of Storm Desmond. Met Eireann has had a status red warning issued for rainfall since last Friday. We have had nearly a months amount of rain, dumped on the west in the space of 36 hours. The amount of rain from storm Desmond has been as Met Eireann called it, “incessant”.
River Moy flooding at Cloonacannana bridge Swinford.
I had been keeping an eye on the river Moy water levels from Cloonacannana bridge and Ballylahan bridge. The water level at Cloonacananna bridge peaked this morning at 6.168 meters high! At roughly the same time Ballylahan bridge was breached and the road had to be closed.
Graph from waterlevel.ie.
Here’s the weekly record of the water level at Cloonacannana bridge from the 30th November to the 6th of December. It really illustrates how fast and how high the Moy got over the space of 24 hours or so.
Someone thought, because they had already driven through this flood, they would do so again. Not alone had they put themselves in serious danger, they also put other people in potential danger. It is idiotic to try to drive though these floods. You do not know how deep they are, or how strong the flood waters are. Lets just say the language from me to them on the video is quite “colourful”!
Cloongullane bridge view from upriver on the Moy.
Further down river at Cloongullane bridge was asimilar story. Although the road did not get flooded, its was getting dangerously close to being closed completely. Worse though was some houses nearby that were extremely close to being flooded. I cannot ever remember the river Moy being so high. Thankfully from this afternoon the water levels in the Moy have been reducing, currently at 6.077 meters and falling.
Cloongullane bridge view of the Moy downriver.
Here’s some video I took also. Worth turning the volume up to hear the roar of the Moy!
Storm Desmond weather statistics
Mayo seems to have gotten the worst of the rainfall over the period of storm Desmond. The weather statistics gathered by Met Eireann were published earlier. The highest rainfall total from Friday/Saturday was recorded in Derrypark Mayo with a total of 106.4mm of rain. The highest rainfall for Saturday/Sunday was recorded in Maam Cross with a total of 95.6mm of rain. The overall record though from Friday to Sunday was recorded again in Derrypark Mayo with a total of 195.9mm of rain. This is described by Met Eireann as a “440 year event”.
Infographic by Met Eireann.
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