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LESSON 5

The Weather

WEATHER FORECASTING

The Irish Meteorological Service, called Met Eireann is the leading provider of weather information and related services for this country. They broadcast information at regular intervals. Where do the Met Eireann people get their information about conditions at sea? You can find out where they get it by visiting www.met.ie and finding the marine page.

sea area map

Sailors are interested in the Sea Area Forecast. This covers the waters around the Irish coast for a distance of 30 nautical miles (nm) and also includes the Irish Sea area as shown in the map above.

The word nautical (like the word maritme) means ‘to do with the sea or ships’. A nautical mile is the traditional way of measuring distances at sea. It is equal to 1,852 metres.

If you listen to a Sea Area Forecast and you will hear some of these terms:

Meteorological or General Situation means a description of the meteorological situation over and near the island of Ireland.
Imminent means within 6 hours.
Soon means between 6 and 12 hours.
Later means between 12 and 24 hours.
Fine means dry, mainly sunny day; clear after dark.
Cloudy means 6 - 8 okta of low or medium cloud. To understand this you need to know that 1 okta means that one eighth of the sky is cloudy.
Fair means dry, good sunny or clear spells (cloud no more than 3 - 5 okta of medium/low cloud or 6 - 8 okta of high cloud).
Mist means that visibility is restricted by water droplets.
Haze means that visibility is restricted by dust or smoke.
Good visibility means that you can see more than 5 nm (about 9km).
Moderate visibility means that you can see between 2 - 5 nm (about 4 - 9 km).
Poor visibility means that you can see between 0.5 to 2 nm (about 1 - 4km).
Fog means that you can see less than 0.5 nm (about 1km).

When can I hear the Sea Area Forecasts?
You can get the forecasts daily on RTE Radio 1 at 0602, 1255, 1655 (except Saturday and Sunday when RTE scheduling decides) and 2355. Gale Warnings are also included on hourly news bulletins on RTÉ.

Listen to the Weather Forecast
	Listen to this weather forecast as read by Jerry Scully from the Met Office.

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