A Status Orange rain warning has been issued for Wicklow and Waterford for tomorrow, with Met Éireann warning of localised flooding and spells of very heavy rain in the affected counties.
The warning will last from 3am tomorrow morning until 3am on Friday.
A separate Status Yellow rain warning for Carlow, Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Louth, Wexford, Monaghan and Tipperary will come into effect at 3am tomorrow and will also last until 3am on Friday.
Met Éireann said that heavy rain falling on already saturated ground combined with high river levels and high tides will lead to localised flooding, river flooding and difficult travel conditions.
It said the river flooding will have potential impacts along the entire course of the river.
Parts of Dublin and the southeast of the country are still at high risk of flooding, the National Director for Fire and Emergency Management has said, despite there not being a lot of rainfall overnight.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Keith Leonard said the key time will be tomorrow night as the effects of heavy rain can often be felt days after.
“The Nore, the Barrow, the Slaney and the Liffey [river] catchment are going to see very high levels right across this evening and into tomorrow,” he said, but added it is still too early to say if there will be major flooding.
Mr Leonard said city and city councils are sharing resources and equipment is being moved from lesser affected areas to key pinch points, with interim solutions, such as an aqua dam in Enniscorthy being put in place.
The town was one of a number of areas in the southeast of the country to be hit by heavy flooding during Storm Chandra, which hit the country on 27 January.
Watch: Drone footage shows scale of Enniscorthy flooding
Mr Leonard said that “absolutely every engineering solution and every kind of interim measure that can be taken is being taken to try and just deal with these really almost record-breaking levels of water right across those catchments.”
On the effects on farmland around the country, Mr Leonard said that there are really difficult conditions for farmers, both from the livestock perspective and also for farmers who have planted crops, particularly winter crops.
“This is about as bad a weather as you could have for that type of situation. Again, hopefully there’ll be some respite shortly, but no doubt, extremely difficult conditions across the agriculture sector,” he said.
‘Risk of flooding doesn’t stop because rain has stopped’
Met Éireann meteorologist Andrew Doran Sherlock has warned that even when it is not raining, there can be delayed responses in some rivers and catchment areas.
“The risk of flooding doesn’t necessarily stop because the rain has stopped”, he said, adding that any further rain or showers could lead to larger impacts.
With strengthening easterly winds tomorrow, there is a risk of coastal flooding that could lead to further impacts, Mr Doran Sherlock said.
“People really need to pay attention to what the weather conditions are and what river gauge data is, and you can check that on waterlevel.ie.”
Local authorities will have the best guidance as they will have a good idea of response times in the areas, he added.
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Today, rain and drizzle mainly north and northeast will be slow to clear, then there will be showers coming in from the south, that will be most frequent and heaviest in the southwest, Mr Doran Sherlock explained.
He added that rain late tonight and into tomorrow will be heaviest in the south, southeast, east and northeast, areas which have already had unusually larger accumulations for this time of year.
Mr Doran Sherlock said that the rain may ease on Saturday, and Sunday is looking like the driest day this week, but next week, the weather system will still be dominated by low pressure so there “isn’t really a let up”.
Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris said there will be further engagement on the flood warning system and “what level of information have been put out into the public domain to help communities.”
Speaking as he arrived at Government Buildings this morning, he said: “We will obviously increase the level of financial assistance available to businesses.
“We also had a very important conversation about what interim works can take place.”
Mr Harris added: “I think we can very clearly see there’s significant difference between the yellow and weather warning for rain when the rivers are low versus the yellow weather warning when the rivers are high.”