Latest: Ireland's New Year's Eve parties underway
Dublin is being entertained with New Year's Eve festivities as the clock ticks down towards midnight.
Limerick Council has cancelled its planned New Year’s Eve celebrations due to Storm Dylan.
It said that threats of flooding and severe weather led to it having to make the decision.
The Council said that high tides were predicted in Limerick and they are acting on health and safety advice.
Communications officer Denis Tierney said the decision was not taken lightly.
"We knew that there was bad weather coming from late last week, and it was on Friday that we made the decision," he said.
"We were thinking maybe we might be able to get away with it, but unfortunately, with all the information that we had to hand, and for the health and safety of the people of Limerick and the visitors of Limerick, we felt it was best to call it off."
Two separate wind warnings are in effect as Storm Dylan continues to impact the country.
A Status Orange warning, issued for Donegal this morning, stated: "Storm Dylan, to the north of Ireland at 7am will continue to move away and the severe winds will abate during the morning.
"However, winds will still reach mean speeds of 65 to 80 km/h with gusts of 110 to 130km/h over the next few hours."
That warning is valid from 7-9am this morning.
#StormDylan will push rain northeastwards across the UK. Winds will strengthen for all, with gusts up to 80 mph possible across parts of Northern Ireland and southern Scotland. The weather will calm down later on #NewYearsEve. With warnings in force, stay #weatheraware pic.twitter.com/G5cgfOUtEB
— Met Office (@metoffice) December 30, 2017
A separate Status Yellow wind warning for Dublin, Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Wexford, Wicklow, Offaly, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford remains in effect until 12 midday today.
The warning was recently updated to state: "Tonight and Sunday morning as storm Dylan tracks to the northwest of the country, west to southwest winds will reach mean speeds of 45 to 65 km/h with gusts of 90 to 110 km/h."
Your essential #NewYearsEve weather planner.
— BBC Weather (@bbcweather) December 30, 2017
Damaging winds for some to begin with https://t.co/II5utRzGOq.
Clear spells and showers as we head into 2018 🎇🎊 MT pic.twitter.com/la8Z16yhdx
Hundreds of homes are without electricity in areas worst affected by Storm Dylan this morning.
ESB spokesperson Derek Hynes has urged people to watch out for fallen wires.
"Really, what we'd be worried about is making sure that all the public are kept as safe as possible,
"Our crews probably won't be deployed until the wind levels drop off to some sort of safe level, but really the message for all the public is that if they do come across any fallen wires or broken poles, or anything that even looks like electricity wires close to or on the ground, to contact us at 1850 372 999."
#StormDylan may cause some outages if you have your MPRN number you can get updates or log your fault here https://t.co/9D73HNABJ7 If you get an ebill from your Supplier log on now and note your MPRN #staysafe
— ESB Networks (@ESBNetworks) December 30, 2017
The storm lashed parts of Ireland with howling gales in excess of 70mph last night.
Met Éireann said the strongest winds were recorded at Mace Head in Co Galway, where 74mph speeds were clocked.
Max gusts so far (km/h):
— Met Éireann (@MetEireann) December 31, 2017
Mace Head (Galway) 113
Belmullet 98
Newport (Mayo) 98
Claremorris 96
Athenry 93
Sherkin Island (Cork) 88
Valentia (Kerry) 87
Johnstown Castle (Wexford) 85
Malin Head 78
Dublin Airport 76#StormDylan pic.twitter.com/lo7VDJ8hmQ
The highest wind speeds recorded in Northern Ireland were gusts of 59mph in Killowen, Co Down.
The UK weather service has issued an amber warning covering Northern Ireland and parts of western Scotland, stating there is the potential for "injuries or danger to life" from flying debris.
