Motorists warned to take care after Storm Gertrude hits Ireland

Around 10,000 properties in all lost power during the peak of the storm.

Update 11.39am: The two weather warnings have now passed and Met Éireann forecaster Deirdre Lowe said conditions should improve this afternoon.

“Storm Gertrude has moved quickly away, it’s now to the west of Scandinavia,” she said.

#StormGertrude centre of storm now passing north of #Scotland Damaging winds for #Shetland https://t.co/cF33dFjnnX pic.twitter.com/uq2mluMmxp

— Metcheck.com (@MetcheckUK) January 29, 2016

“Winds are still very strong along the north and northwest coast and in parts of the north east, but they’re only gusting up to 100 km/h at the worst and they will abate during the morning.

“So a brightening picture - some nice sunshine with scattered showers around.

“It is going to turn cold tonight though, and there will be sleet and snow showers, particularly in the north and north west.”

Earlier: Motorists have been warned to watch out for fallen trees and debris after Storm Gertrude brought strong winds and heavy rain to all areas overnight.

Gusts of up to 130 kilometres per hour have been battering the country with the north, west and parts of the east coast worst affected.

Becoming extremely windy as southwest winds increase. Image via https://t.co/ocYrv0RdXG. #StormGertrude pic.twitter.com/l8IsXW95Tm

— AAWeatherWatch (@AAWeatherWatch) January 28, 2016

Met Éireann has two weather warnings in place - a Status Yellow alert for the whole island, and an Status Orange warning for counties Cavan, Monaghan, Donegal, Dublin, Longford, Louth, Wexford, Wicklow, Meath, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Sligo, Clare, Cork, Kerry and Waterford.

The warnings will remain in place until 9am this morning.

Stormy conditions abating quickly this morn Windy for rest of today, gales on N&NW coasts Sunny spells, shwrs bec widespread later High7-10C

— Met Éireann (@MetEireann) January 29, 2016

Two bridges in the north west – the Blaney and Foyle in Donegal and Derry - were closed due to the high winds.

The Foyle Bridge has been reopened to all vehicles. A 30mph speed limit remains in place. Cee

— Cecilia Daly (@WeatherCee) January 29, 2016

AA Roadwatch carried a series of reports of trees down on roads across the country.

DONEGAL: A fallen tree is blocking the road on the Tullyowen/ Carrigans Rd (R236). https://t.co/qvBPcgxUj8

— The AA Ireland (@aaroadwatch) January 29, 2016

DONEGAL: A tree is partially blocking traffic on the N14 Lifford/ Letterkenny Rd at Rossgier. https://t.co/qvBPcgxUj8

— The AA Ireland (@aaroadwatch) January 29, 2016

ROSCOMMON:Tree down on Athleague/ Ballinasloe Rd one mile from Dysart on Athleague side.Council have been notified. https://t.co/qvBPcgxUj8

— The AA Ireland (@aaroadwatch) January 29, 2016

Thousands of homes and businesses across Ireland have been left without power.

#Donegal #Sligo #Mayo #Galway #Kerry have a number of outages see https://t.co/VMtxFrW7FY for updates if NOT listed ring us on 1850372999

— ESB Networks (@ESBNetworks) January 29, 2016

Among the worst affected areas were Stranorlar in Co Donegal and Killeshandra in Co Cavan, where almost 3,000 properties suffered blackouts.

Outages were also reported in Wicklow, Westport, parts of Dublin, Athenry, Cong, Co Mayo, Roscommon, Limerick, Kerry and Wexford.

Forecaster David Rogers said that conditions should start to improve later today.

"Well the actual depression storm centre is several hundred miles to the north, north west of the country, and it'll be tracking more or less east north eastwards towards the Faroe Islands and the Norwegian Sea," he said last night.

#StormGertrude developing to the NW. No direct hit (thank goodness!) but still very wet and very windy overnight. pic.twitter.com/rLPNS0RoRs

— AAWeatherWatch (@AAWeatherWatch) January 28, 2016

"But the Storm itself has a wide breath of strong winds associated with it, and those winds will be south-westerly over the country."