Shannon water levels 8 December 2015

North to south (more or less)

Floods 20151208 Shannonbridge 01_resize

Shannonbridge upstream

Floods 20151208 Shannonbridge 07_resize

Shannonbridge downstream

Floods 20151208 Shannon Harbour 04_resize

Shannon Harbour: 36th lock

Floods 20151208 Shannon Harbour 06_resize

Shannon Harbour: below the 36th

Floods 20151208 Shannon Harbour 16_resize

Shannon Harbour: road to Banagher closed

Floods 20151208 Banagher 03_resize

Banagher: the harbour above the bridge

Floods 20151208 Banagher 05_resize

Banagher: the harbour’s sole inhabitant

Floods 20151208 Banagher 09_resize

Banagher: work goes on

Floods 20151208 Portumna bridge 01_resize

Portumna Bridge: Hawthorn moving

Floods 20151208 Portumna bridge 03_resize

Portumna Bridge

Floods 20151208 Portumna bridge 02_resize

Below Portumna Bridge

Floods 20151208 Portumna bridge 10_resize

Above Portumna Bridge

Floods 20151208 Portumna bridge 12_resize

Portumna Bridge: Waterways Ireland yard

Floods 20151208 Mountshannon 01_resize

Mountshannon

Floods 20151208 Mountshannon 04_resize

Mountshannon: the main quay

Floods 20151208 Scarriff 01_resize

Scarriff: the river in flood

Floods 20151208 Scarriff 02_resize

Scarriff: the river flowing on to the road to the harbour

Floods 20151208 Scarriff 06_resize

Scarriff: sandbags blocking the road …

Floods 20151208 Scarriff 04_resize

… to the Waterways Ireland Shannon HQ. Anyone in the building must have waded there

Floods 20151208 Tuamgraney 01_resize

Tuamgraney

Floods 20151208 Killaloe 16_resize

Killaloe: the flash lock

Floods 20151208 Killaloe 26_resize

Killaloe bridge from downstream

Floods 20151208 O'Briensbridge 02_resize

O’Briensbridge

Floods 20151208 O'Briensbridge 05_resize

Water level with the quay at O’Briensbridge

Floods 20151208 O'Briensbridge 10_resize

Flooded fields at O’Briensbridge

O’Briensbridge is on the original course of the Shannon, downstream of Parteen Villa Weir, which controls how much water goes via the original course and how much goes to the hydroelectric power station at Ardnacrusha.

Normally, the original course gets the first 10 cubic metres per second (10 cumec, they say) of water and Ardnacrusha gets the next 400, 100 for each of its four turbines. In floods, any excess is sent down the original course, through O’Briensbridge, Castleconnell and Plassey. One newspaper today said that, on Monday 7 December 2015, 315 cumec had been sent down the original course and, on Tuesday 8 December, 375 cumec.

The water levels are still below the peak achieved in November 2009, but there is more to come: as the Shannon drains a very large amount of Ireland, and as it is falls very little in its upper reaches, it takes a long time for the runoff to reach Killaloe and Parteen Villa. It may be that the ESB, which controls Ardnacrusha and Parteen Villa, is now running down the level of Lough Derg to make room for the water that has yet to arrive from the upper Shannon.

 

4 responses to “Shannon water levels 8 December 2015

  1. Thanks BJG for the very interesting photographs.

    One thing puzzles me in relation to the effects of the recent storm(s): where are the local authorities and what are they doing?

    In the now famous Teresa Mannion’s reports, the segment on Crossmolina showed locals mopping up; ditto elsewhere. On Sky they showed Cumbria, which was in bad shape, but had lots of local authority activity; the Local Authority seemed to think they had a role when Nature hit.

  2. To be fair, they wouldn’t really show up in my photos, which concentrate on the marinas and other watery locations. I did note that there were warnings (see eg Tuamgraney) all over the place and flooded sections of road had been blocked off. I saw Council workers at Portumna and sandbags being positioned in Castleconnell. bjg

  3. Brian how many acres are under water between the Parteen villa and the city.

  4. I have no idea. The Irish Times has some satellite images today but they don’t go far enough out. bjg

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