#StormRachel - The Commissioners of Irish Lights' five Twitter 'smart buoys' have recorded high winds in all coastal areas as Storm Rachel hammers Ireland from the Atlantic.
As previously reported on Afloat.ie, Met Éireann had issued a Status Red weather warning for exposed coastal areas in western counties with gusts of up to 150km/h predicted.
And the since-named Storm Rachel proved as strong as expected, with an incredible gust of 138km/h recorded by the Coningbeg buoy of the Wexford coast last night.
Elsewhere, a high of 120km/h was felt in the Aran Islands according to the Finnis buoy, which recorded consistently high winds throughout the night.
And the Ballybunion North buoy recorded 114km/h on a number of occasions overnight, with no let-up in the gusty conditions expected till this afternoon.
The CIL website has more on the MetOcean smart buoy network HERE.
A visualisation of the wind currently over Ireland (from http://t.co/M7F7jfIZ1T) pic.twitter.com/cau3olyvm1
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) January 15, 2015