Popular Irish weather man gutted after negative call from 'senior forecaster' in Met Éireann

Cathal Nolan always wanted to be a meteorologist, or at least, working in the field of weather forecasting.

Growing up in Rhode, county Offaly, Cathal remembers his entire family having an "obsession" with the weather, which certainly inspired his career.

"My father always kept a weather station at home and he would sit down every evening at about 11.30 and record the weather of the day; temperatures, rainfall etc. so I really just grew up with it and was obsessed from such an early age. It's so nice to have the family connection through that."

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Cathal, now a qualified meteorologist and founder of Ireland's Weather Channel, trained through the Ireland Meteorological Society before spending two years in Aberdeen in Scotland working for the company DTN (Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking) in what he described as a "very high-pressure job". 

Working for the offshore industry forecasting for ships and helicopters going in and out from the north sea, 32-year-old Cathal says it was "a massively important forecast and a lot of responsibility, but a great experience to work in such an environment."

With a growing presence on social media platforms including Facebook and TikTok, Cathal says he has been very fortunate to be able to build on his weather service, which he founded in 2013, over the years and "lucky in a sense with the weather events in recent years that have really thrown us in to a higher consciousness within the general public."

"From our perspective, when you have a forecast on RTÉ, you're only really getting two to three minutes of a forecast but a lot of these events require a more detailed explanation, and I think through social media and the changing landscape, we've been able to take advantage of that.

"So many people get their news from social media these days or they see the news there first. It's nice that they can become familiar with a particular person or service."

Starting out in 2013 as the Offaly Weather Channel, then it changed to Midlands Weather Channel, until eventually it became Ireland's Weather Channel, Cathal was determined to bring the most up to date forecast for towns and villages all over the country.

"There can be massive differences in weather all over the country, but if you're just getting the one weather warning, or one general forecast, you're not really getting that accuracy. We're just trying to be that bit more localised."

Building Ireland's Weather Channel has been a rewarding yet challenging experience for Cathal, who said he found it quite daunting starting out.

"Coming from the midlands area I always felt there was a great focus on coastal counties and urbanised areas."

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The avenues to get into meteorology, especially through the likes of Met Éireann, were more mathematically focused which Cathal admits is not his forte.

"My expertise are certainly focused on the identification of severe weather patterns, having an understanding of past weather climate events and understanding how current conditions will play out in terms of infrastructure and the impacts. They were always my areas which took me down my own path."

His journey was particularly disappointing when Cathal began to get phone calls from people who have been in the weather forecasting business whom Cathal had always admired, asking him to stop using his own forecast on social media and refer to theirs instead.

"I received a phone call from a senior forecaster from Met Éireann. It was during the time of Storm Ali back in 2018 which saw the tragic loss of two lives in Ireland, not to mention widespread destruction in the form of power outages and damage to thousands of properties.

"Met Éireann reached out and asked me to stop putting out forecasts and just re-issue Met Éireann's forecast. 

"I replied politely that I would wait until the next day to see how the weather panned out...if Met Éireann were more accurate, I would use their forecast. As it turned out it wasn't, so I continued on, albeit disappointed to have received the request in the first place.

"I really just wanted to focus on what we did well and the services that we offer. There was no need to be getting involved in such things. Whenever I tell people that they seem to be surprised, but there are a lot of egos in weather forecasting.

"From my perspective, and even in the UK, there are many different forecasting services that coexist with the BBC and the Met Office and everybody finds their own niche and works together. I thought that would work the same in Ireland but that obviously isn't the case.

"Growing up, weather experts in the likes of RTÉ and Met Éireann, they were my idols...so to have received that call from them to stop what I was doing was certainly disappointing.

"I have a huge amount of respect for Met Éireann and the service that they provide, but what was disappointing was the lack of understanding that we could coexist within the same space."

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New Services

Cathal is now in the midst of developing a new private forecasting service that he hopes will be running by late September.

"Any business or anybody that's impacted by severe weather conditions, they will essentially be able to get a forecast directly for their specific area or wherever it is that they're concerned about, so we can give greater clarity and granularity in terms of a forecast.

"Very often these weather events can change and can have an impact over the course of a couple of hours, whereas the general forecast just really doesn't get you the level of detail that you really need to get you work done or make the most of the windows between those more severe or disruptive conditions.

"Another side would be more specific to the farming and agricultural sector. There's no sector that's more impacted by weather throughout the course of the year. To be able to get a specific forecast for your farm or for the day in question where they're looking to do certain activities. 

"It's obviously very good from a farming perspective, there's no wasting time, you know exactly what's coming and you know you're guaranteed to get out of the forecast what you want as well. Also there's environmental factors that can be considered, for example, finding the optimum time for spraying, so any problems farmers may be having with irrigation who would be under the cosh a little bit there, we would certainly be able to help and assist.

"There are many different avenues they could go down with various businesses across Ireland including gritting services, garden centres, the construction sector, so it's really limitless in terms of where you can see the benefits from having a private forecast if the weather can impact your business.

"To have that level of assistance or that call out service that they can essentially pick up the phone at any point and make contact with us directly, that is a game-changer in terms of their ability to plan ahead instead of waiting for a weekly forecast to come along that can change in a moment, but our service will be updated on a daily basis. It really will give them that extra degree of support."

At the moment, Cathal is running the show by himself but admits it may get to a critical point further down the line where he will need to employ more forecasters to ensure things run smoothly, be it the communication side of things or the logistical side of the operation.

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With a presence just on social media right now, Cathal plans to launch a dedicated Ireland's Weather Channel website and grow his presence across other social media apps such as the very popular TikTok. 

The plan is to launch a subscription based site through Patreon. With a purpose-built weather studio located in Offaly, the site will be launched in the middle of September which will give studio quality forecasts and will increase the ability to see maps and graphics, satellites and radars, and the ability to zoom in on certain locations with great accuracy that will give the level of detail needed for forecasts.

Included in that subscription will be a monthly newsletter, a bi-weekly podcast that will feature special guests in the field of weather along with people who have been affected by severe weather. It was also feature a direct messaging service.

For the price, Cathal says he will keep it as low as he can, akin to the price of a cup of coffee per month. However, Cathal says he will still continue with the Facebook page giving up to date weather forecasts, but they might not have as much detail. 

Another very exciting element that will set Cathal and Ireland's Weather Channel apart from other forecasters across the country will be Ireland's first storm-chasing vehicle.

"This is going to be quite big during the winter time and certainly at times where will see more severe weather.

"We will have instruments on top of this particular vehicle which will most likely be a modified jeep and with that what we'll have is essentially a remote studio so we can broadcast from inside some of the more severe weather conditions that we see during the winter like storms etc.

"Obviously, safety is of paramount importance for forecasters so we will always make sure we are in a safe location but at the same time be able to broadcast from inside the very worst of the conditions, and essentially raise greater levels of awareness to ensure that we progress on that idea of public safety and then also make sure that we can bring you the very best quality content from those severe weather events, be it storms, heavy snow, strong winds, whatever the case may be.

"If there's flooding, we can get out and about. We don't want to be just weather forecasters sitting in front of screen in the office.

"I think it will also be a really great way to highlight the changing conditions over the last few years, the severity of these storms, and creating a greater awareness where we can actually climate-proof ourselves for these kind of events down the line because we saw this year just how vulnerable some of our infrastructure is.

"To be able to do this is very exciting."

With an investor from the West of Ireland now on board for the next step for Ireland's Weather Channel, exciting things are on the horizon.

"An investor reached out at the end of last year prior to a storm that was incoming that would impact the west," said Cathal, "We provided him with an accurate forecast service for his area and he was very impressed and couldn't believe I was offering the services for free.

"Through various conversations that developed, we were fortunate enough to strike up a partnership, and through that investment we were able to establish the new studio and be able to take our forecasting to the next level."