Are you interested in the weather? Host Kathryn Thomas and meteorologists Joanna Donnelly and Gerry Murphy chat to Janice Butler about our obsession with weather and of course, the recent Storm Ophelia.
Ireland’s rather unusual affection for weather and the people who tell us about it every day shows no sign of waning. This week, a new live audience show, Weather Live, is going to explore our favourite obsession (The final episode is on RTÉ One tonight at 7pm and you can catch up on the programmes from Wednesday and Thursday nights on the RTÉ Player here). The show will broadcast across three nights from a live studio hub in the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin.
Host Kathyrn Thomas will be joined each night by studio guests and Met Éireann forecasters, among them Gerald Fleming, Evelyn Cusack and Joanna Donnelly, to find out what makes the Irish climate so unique.
There will be live satellite links with weather forecasters, Gerry Murphy and Karina Buckley, who will be reporting from Valentia in Co Kerry, on the edge of the Atlantic, the source of all our weather, as well as Killybegs in Co Donegal, home to the country’s largest fishing fleet.
They’ll also be watching the weather at one of Europe’s busiest airports, Dublin Airport. From Hurricane Ophelia to the Child of Prague, the show will sort fact from fiction and uncover how the weather affects our
everyday lives.
Kathryn Thomas - host
A secret nerd, Kathryn Thomas, the host of Weather Live, says this kind of show is right up her street and on a personal level, she’s looking forward to learning lots from the experts.
"From my perspective and for anyone that’s not a weather expert, there’s going to be a lot for the nerds out there who want to learn more about the weather.
"From an entertainment perspective, we’re going to try and figure out why the Irish are so obsessed with the weather and how it impacts us so much culturally.
"It was one of those ideas where I thought, ‘How has this not been done before’? When you see the success of the Ploughing, Big Week on the Farm and Bloom and those kind of live event shows that are becoming so popular on TV, it just seems really timely, particularly in the last few years, when we’ve seen more extreme weather patterns and on the back of Hurricane Ophelia."
This year, Kathryn had a busy few months with Celebrity Operation Transformation and the lead-up to the new season of the main show, which starts after Christmas, but for now, she’s excited to get back to a show with
a live element. She travelled the world in her early years presenting No Frontiers and is no stranger to extreme weather – something that’s always fascinated her.
"I have a genuine interest in the weather and I don’t understand the ins and outs of climate change, but I’d like
to. I was in a huge monsoon storm for four days in Indonesia, which was terrifying. I was also in as and storm in Namibia and that was an eight-hour batten down the hatches scenario."
Speaking of battening down the hatches, Kathryn says that she and her fiancé, Padraig McLoughlin, were like the rest of the country a few weeks ago when Storm Ophelia hit, glued to the news and constant updates from the Met Éireann meteorologists from the safety of their home.
"The production team were filming in the Met Éireann offices that week and it followed them every step of the way." Another event for which Kathryn will be keeping a close eye on the weather, is her wedding next year. She’s being coy about the date, saying it will be at the "end of next summer.
"We’re still torn between two locations. We have them both held, so we need to make our decision in the next few weeks," she adds.
Another item she’s sorted is her dress, but she admits that the process was a bit more daunting than she expected. "I was quite nervous going in to the stores. You’re standing in front of a sea of white. I would generally be very decisive, I know what style suits me and what shape suits me but then you get thrown a curve ball. You’re torn between what would normally be your style and your comfort zone and then something that you would never put on in a million years but there’s a voice in your head saying ‘You’re only going to do this once’.
I’ve now settled on a style I’m happy with."Is she worried about the weather for the big day? "I think in this country you have to expect rain and everything else is a bonus."
Joanna Donnelly – meteorologist
It’s been just over a year since meteorologist Joanna Donnelly joined the RTÉ TV weather team. While she had previous experience on the radio, she’s made a big impact since her move and her profile was greatly increased when Storm Ophelia made its presence known across the country on Monday, October 16.
She was one of the faces of the storm reports, issuing warnings to people around the country and providing constant information on radio and TV.
"Career-wise it was probably the peak, but it was an extraordinary team effort and it was wonderful to be part of that. It really was us at our best," she remarks. "The right responses and the right calls were made by everybody. But we have to remember that people died that day. It was a terrible thing and that’s the thing to
keep to the fore of our minds.
"As a forecaster, you generally feel your work is done the night before when you’ve delivered the forecast, that’s the nature of it. But the reporting on the Monday was so hectic that by the Tuesday, I was exhausted and overwhelmed. It was a very emotional time." She got an overwhelming response from the public following the storm, mostly positive, with one letter from a young girl in West Cork thanking her for keeping her dad and granddad, both fishermen, safe.
However, one disgruntled member of the public sent her a handwritten note: ‘Get off the stage, Donnelly. You work for Met Éireann. You’re a weather forecaster. That’s all no big deal. Nobody is remotely interested in you or your lifestyle. You’re not even a little bit attractive.’
How did she take this criticism? "I didn’t remotely take it seriously," she responds. "But what did strike me was we got such a hugely positive response from people, thousands of emails and contacts. Then that one came along and I thought it was just ridiculous. Thankfully, that doesn’t happen very much. We will get comments sometimes about our clothes but most of them are very positive."
The mother-of-three has been working as a meteorologist for the last 15 years but feels that through her TV work she’s getting a new platform to show her knowledge and passion for what she does. "I am feeling very fulfilled by it all. I’m a forecaster a long time and I would think I’m pretty good at my job and now people know it. Not to sound big-headed, it’s nice to be recognised at being good at your job."
Married to Harm Luijkx, also a Met Éireann forecaster, she admits their conversations at home can sometimes be a little dictated by what they do, but their children Nicky, Tobias and Casper are not all that impressed by mum’s new found fame. "The kids are used to the idea that people know me and that they can’t but be interested in the weather because it’s their parents’ job. But we’re not on Youtube, so in their eyes, we’re really not famous at all."
Gerry Murphy– meteorologist
"From a meteorologist’s perspective, it’s very exciting because it gives us an opportunity to give people a better flavour of the weather and we go into a lot more detail than we can normally in our two-minute broadcast," says Gerry Murphy about Weather Live.
Gerry joined Met Éireann in 1992, working as chief scientist of Valentia Geophysical Observatory, Cahirciveen from 1993 to 1999 and made his debut as a weather presenter with RTÉ in 2001. Since then, he’s been a constant on our TV screens and he says he loves it as much today as he did all those years ago.
"There are so many aspects of my job that I find interesting – I never cease to be amazed by the variations in our weather and I always feel very privileged to be able to communicate the weather to the people of Ireland because it’s such a big part of all our lives."
Storm Ophelia was obviously a huge moment in his career and one he hopes will only happen once. "It was an extraordinary day because it was a real once-off event. It was an ex-hurricane and we hadn’t had anything like that since Hurricane Debbie in 1961.
On the day itself, it was all hands on deck to report the latest information. We had a duty to do two
things: to warn people of the dangers but to also reassure them of when it was safe to go out. It was a critical day and from a professional perspective, it was very satisfying. Having said that, colleagues and I were very aware that it was a dangerous situation and that by the end of day, three people had lost their lives."
Did he feel under pressure? "It was a day when you knew you needed to be on the top of your game – there
was certainly adrenaline and a sense of urgency." Gerry grew up on a farm just outside Carrickmacross, County Monaghan and when he’s not immersed in the weather, Gerry likes to get home.
"I live a very normal life, I switch off by getting involved in sport, I like to travel a bit and go back to Monaghan fairly often. I see myself as a very lucky person in a career that I enjoy very much."
