This weather is the bomb

Jean Byrne

Will Hanafin

News of the weather bomb has been manna from heaven for our weather-obsessed nation. We've been known to get worked up about some heavy showers, temperatures dropping below zero or even the odd sunny spell. But when weather anoraks heard about a rapidly approaching weather bomb, then that brought it to a whole new level.

This weather bomb which has been loitering with intent around the North Atlantic is like the stuff of science fiction movies. Here's the science bit. It was a storm with rapidly dropping pressure at its centre, a phenomenon with the scary title of explosive cyclogenesis.

When the weather bomb hit it meant gale force winds, huge waves and orange alerts. The kind of meteorological consternation that's usually reserved for the times when weather presenter Jean Byrne, above, invests in a new wardrobe!

Weather is really like a sport in Ireland because we desperately need to hear the stats when it all kicks off. There were gushing reports of wind gusts of 130kmh and waves in Donegal that were four times the height of a double-decker bus.

We'll never be the same again! The weather bar has now been raised to an impossibly high level after all this explosive cyclogenesis!