At 10am on Sunday morning, Met Éireann issued a status orange rainfall warning for Cork and Waterford, valid until 6pm Monday 15 April.

With 29.8mm of rainfall recorded at Cork Airport, many farmers are experiencing flash floods on their land. A further 16.9mm of rainfall was forecasted for Cork on Monday.

Ground conditions

Cork farmer Harold Kingston told the Irish Farmers Journal that “ground conditions are holding up well where I am, but a few farmers around me are bringing cattle back in as a result of the severe conditions”.

"I’m fortunate my land has good drainage, but floods are forming on roads throughout the county,” he said.

Cathal and Kieran O'Sullivan, dairy farmers in west Cork, have seen parts of their land flooded as a result of this sudden weather change.

Cathal said: “The River Glaun flows through our land and with the increased volume of rainwater, it has caused the river to overflow on to the surrounding floodplain.”

This has resulted in livestock being moved to higher ground.

Liam Donovan farms along the River Ilen in west Cork and has had to “house the cattle for the past 24 hours to avoid poaching”.

He believes “conditions should pick up in the next few days and the cattle will be back out”.