West takes a battering from Storm Boelo
The West took a weather battering over the Bank Holiday weekend with Conamara in particular suffering widespread flooding – and the core of the weekend's sporting fixtures either refixed or cancelled because of the threat posed by Storm Boelo.
The western seaboard was hardest hit with roads around Carna virtually impassable and serious safety concerns over flooding in Kylemore.
There was considerable surface water around the city too, and Salthill Prom took a hammering, with the stretch closed to traffic for substantial portions of the weekend.
The County Football Final moved to Sunday to avoid the worst of Saturday's high winds - and that turned up a classic as Salthill/Knocknacarra's Tommo Culhane helped the Seasiders to shatter Maigh Cuilinn with a late goal after a Sean Kelly goal and Peter Cooke two-pointer looked to have sealed the win for the reigning champions.
That rescheduling also saw the Intermediate curtain raiser moved as Caherlistrane saw off An Spideal - and the two Junior Finals moved to Monday.
A number of other games were postponed, while Galway United Women's final game of the season – a critical clash with Shelbourne, scheduled for Saturday, also moved to Sunday.
Racing at Ballybrit also suffered – and while the Race in Pink Day for Cancer Care West went ahead on Saturday, as did the Student Race Day on Monday, the Tuesday card was rained off after an 8am inspection which deemed the course unfit for racing after 12mm of rain overnight.
Saturday's Status Orange warning and the subsequent Status Yellow warning were both lifted on Tuesday, but by then much of the damage had been done - although, as one weather watcher's findings show, the effect varied widely even across Connemara itself.
The height of it saw 113mm of rain in Leenane and 94km/h gusts on Inishturk, as recorded by Seán Rima’s own weather stations, as he works to protect his unique network of stations that tracked its impact.
Seán Rima says the storm highlighted the value of local weather monitoring, just as a major service used to share its readings faces closure.
“The official stations out west are Mace Head and Claremorris. That means there is a big gap that no figures are being filled in,” he told the Connacht Tribune.
His network recorded 113mm of rain at Leenane, compared with 50mm at Kylemore and 40.6mm at Oughterard, while wind gusts reached 94km/h on Inishturk.
While acknowledging that enthusiasts’ equipment is not as accurate as that used at official stations, he said the observations remain valuable.
“They have a value in that they give an indication on how a storm is moving. It was possible to monitor the passage of the storm,” he said.
Keeping those observations publicly available has become a priority as the UK Met Office prepares to retire its Weather Observations Website (WOW), which allows people with personal weather stations to share readings online.
Met Éireann’s Irish service, WOW-IE, relies on the same system, which is being decommissioned in late 2026 because of ageing technology.
The closure means observations will no longer be uploaded or displayed through WOW-IE, although individual stations can continue recording weather conditions.
Met Éireann is exploring an alternative with European partners and has advised users to download historical observations before the existing service closes, warning that records will no longer be accessible through WOW-IE afterwards.
Rima has already begun transferring his network’s shared readings to Belgium’s independently operated WOW-BE platform, with most stations now added.
“I think the Belgium WOW will help cover the gap caused by the closure of the UK Met Office one,” he said.
“A lot of hardware and software is now moving to the Belgium one so we just need to register with them.”
His Connemara Weather website continues to provide local readings, independently of the outgoing UK platform.
He is also planning to expand coverage, identifying Recess on the N59 and south Connemara as areas where additional monitoring stations could fill gaps.
“I also hope to add more stations over the next twelve months to fill some of the gaps in Connemara,” he said.
And as the evenings draw in and Atlantic storms begin to roll towards the west coast, Rima’s network will be watching closely, recording the weather in the places the official stations cannot.