There’s no such thing as a safe tan

The What’s Up Docs podcast from the BBC is an entertaining but factual podcast about health presented by two doctors, Chris and Xand van Tulleken (brothers and twins!) who find out to their dismay that they were wrong about the dangers of getting a nice healthy colour from the sun.

A cat lying on the ground and enjoying the sun.

A tan occurs when UV radiation damages skin cells, causing them to produce more melanin as a protective response. This process involves DNA damage to skin cells, which can accumulate over time and potentially lead to skin cancer.

Sunburn is obviously harmful and painful. Even one blistering sunburn in childhood can double your lifetime risk of melanoma.

It’s a bit late for my Irish readers, as we had cloudless skies and a hot sun last week. Temperatures reached 25C where I was, so I slapped on the factor 50 sunscreen and made sure I was wearing a hat when I was outside. Many years ago, a neighbour died of skin cancer at the age of 52, only a few years older than I am now.

The Met Éireann UV Index page will show you what the UV index in Ireland is. If it’s 3 or over, you should be covering up with clothing or sunscreen. It’s quite alarming that the difference between a clear sky and a cloudy sky is 1-2 or 8-10 on that index.

Ireland is Red Tonight

Storm Éowyn is battering the country with winds gusting to 130km/h. Hope everyone stays safe tonight. It started raining here around an hour or so ago, and I can hear wind gusting outside from where I sit.

Status Red – Wind warning for Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Waterford

Met Éireann Weather Warning

Storm Éowyn: Gale to storm force southerly winds becoming westerly with extreme, damaging and destructive gusts in excess of 130km/h

Impacts:

• Danger to life
• Extremely dangerous travelling conditions
• Unsafe working conditions
• Disruption and cancellations to transport
• Many fallen trees
• Significant and widespread power outages
• Impacts to communications networks
• Cancellation of event
• Structural damage
• Wave overtopping
• Coastal flooding in low-lying and exposed areas

Valid: 02:00 Friday 24/01/2025 to 10:00 Friday 24/01/2025

Issued: 17:08 Wednesday 22/01/2025

Updated: 08:28 Thursday 23/01/2025

Blarney is Frozen

Schools are back this morning, but temperatures are staying around 2ºC (feels like -3ºC) which would be manageable except it rained around 4am this morning. Local roads are lethal, with vehicles already skidding and crashing.

A double-decker bus skidded on black ice at one end of the village and blocked the road completely.

Twenty minutes later, two delivery trucks jackknifed after coming down the hill coming from the opposite side of the village.

I live on a hill, and watched cars come down it very, very slowly. Thankfully, no incidents there yet.

Pictures come from the Blarney Blog on Facebook.

Extra bits:

Damien Boylan was on RTÉ Radio 1 talking about the freeze with Claire Byrne.

Barry Hoare is internet famous for capturing a video of the bus crashing just outside his garage. Part of his wall was demolished by the bus!

PS. I forgot to say, happy birthday Matt!

Hot hot hot!

When a toddler is about to touch something hot, you warn them it’s “HOT HOT HOT!” What do you do when the world is overheating?

My phone says it’s 30C right now where I live, and in the Phoenix Park in Dublin it’s 33C, almost breaking the Irish temperature record set in 1835.

And Ireland is probably the coldest place in Europe today. How did we let this happen?

It’s a mystery

Storm Barra is upon us

Gusts of 130km/h were predicted and a gust of 156km/h was recorded off Fastnet Lighthouse but it’s not been too bad in Blarney yet. Fences are still standing and the wheelie bins are tucked away safe!

Cork Beo have live updates on their website as the City has all but shut down and the river has started to flood surrounding areas. It’s a good day to stay inside if you can!

The Swollen River Martin

A few photos of the River Martin in Blarney, swollen after the rains of Storm Frank yesterday. Not pictured are the broken garden fences I haphazardly repaired in torrential rain last night. At least the rain stopped this morning to let me repair the roof of our shed.

Cold tonight with clear spells and light winds over the northern half of the country with temperatures falling to between 0 and 4 degrees with some icy patches. But further south, cloud and winds will increase with rain developing and pushing northwards through the night (falling as sleet or snow in parts of Ulster towards dawn). Winds will be light variable at first then easterly and increase fresh to strong veering southwesterly in southern counties later in the night. (met.ie)

Ever wondered how climate change is going to affect Ireland? This post will be of interest to you.

In Ireland the average air temperature has risen by approximately 0.8°C in the last 100 years, with much of the warming occurring towards the end of the 20thcentury, all seasons are warmer. Some of the impacts can already be seen; the start of the growing season for certain species is now up to 10 days earlier, there has been a decrease in the number of days with frost and increase in the number of warm days (days over 20°C).
….
Over the last 30 years or so rainfall amounts have increased by approximately 5%, and there is some evidence of an increase in the number of days with heavy rain in the west and northwest. Climate projections for rainfall have greater uncertainty than for temperature, they indicate that overall rainfall amounts in Ireland might decrease slightly, summers are likely to become drier while winters may be wetter especially in the west and north. There are also indications of an increase in the number of very wet days (days with rainfall >20mm).

These projections, applied to river flows, show an increased risk of winter flooding, an increased risk of short duration ‘flash’ floods and to possible water shortages in summer months due to higher temperatures and lower rainfall. The rise in sea levels will make low lying coastal areas more prone to flooding, especially from storm surges.

It warns that the changes will happen slowly so we’re not going to notice them year-on-year but it doesn’t look good.