This article is from page 6 of the 2011-09-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
SEA and coastal conditions are set to return to normal around the county this morning as the last effects of Hurricane Katia are felt along the north and west of the county.
The former hurricane, which was downgraded to a storm before it made landfall in Clare, caused minor damage around the county with a top wind speed of 102 kilometres per hour recorded at Shannon Airport yesterday.
Despite the rough sea, two boat owners risked a swim ashore at Doolin Pier on Sunday when they were unable to dock their boat because of rough sea conditions.
The boat, which carried four passengers, had departed from Doolin to the Aran Island’s earlier that day but was unable to dock safely following the return journey.
Despite the large sea swell two members of the crew jumped overboard and swam ashore to collect their car and boat trailer before driv- ing to calmer water at Ballyvaughan where the boat was able to dock safely.
Meanwhile, opening hours at the Cliffs of Moher Visitors Experience are expected to return to normal tomorrow after the centre closed two hours early yesterday because of the weather.
The early closure follows a warning by the centre’s management against any visits to the world famous tourist attraction yesterday.
This is not the first time that the centre has been forced to close because of poor weather conditions but it is the first time that a closure has been necessary in the month of September.
“The track of this storm was always predicted to head for the to northern corner of Scotland and the strongest winds of any storm always occur about 100 km from this tip, so we were lucky enough in Clare to miss the very strongest winds from this storm,” said Mark Dunphy of Irish Weather Online.
“The winds will continue to abate but there could be some gusts around the county until Tuesday afternoon. There has been rough seas all around the county but we had not had any reports of coastal flooding yet in Clare, which was a big fear because of the high tide.
“There is another system which is likely to track this way in the days ahead. Maria is a tropical storm at this point and it is likely to track a bit more north than this storm so we should miss the worst of that.”