Offaly's online weather expert outlines plan to expand service

By Rebekah O'Reilly

Rhode's Cathal Nolan, the man behind Ireland's Weather Channel, has shared plans to expand his popular online weather forecasting service.

Cathal shared the news after his weather channel received an expression of interest from a financial backer last October. He said planning was now under way to further develop and add to Ireland's Weather Channel, which has over 100,000 followers on Facebook.

"The funding will allow us to become the first independent professional weather channel in Ireland which is not associated with Met Éireann," Cathal said.

"We will be able to create our own weather studio, which will increase the quality of our forecasts. We also hope to extend our services to other areas that may need it, such as small enterprises and farmers, who are hugely affected by the weather. We will become our own private weather business."

Ireland's Weather Channel first started in 2013, and was named Offaly Weather before Cathal expanded its coverage nationwide.

The following of the page has grown exponentially since then, with the opportunity for further expansion coming directly from the scale of its online audience.

Cathal said: "The investor is actually someone who was a long-time follower of Ireland's Weather Channel. He reached out to us because he needed a private forecast, and we helped with that.

"We are very grateful that, at the time that we were deciding to become a private independent weather business, this opportunity came up seemingly out of the blue!"

The 32-year-old local man is the sole operator of Ireland's Weather Channel and has been working at it full time since last May. However he hopes that, within a year or so, he will be able to recruit more members to the team.

"We would of course be looking in the future to hire further meteorologists, AI professionals, and graphic designers. It does depend on how things develop, and so it would be in a year's time.

"Ireland's Weather Channel hopes to maintain in the Midlands. It's where it all started, and it is a great place to observe weather events," Cathal said.

"Our main priority is to keep posting online. We wouldn't be in the position that we're in today if it wasn't for the online presence."

The finer details of the channel's funding and the expansion of its services are yet to be ironed out, however, it is hoped that the new services will be available from this autumn.

Ireland's Weather Channel recently launched a newsletter, which will feature the latest updates about both local and international weather events, as well as information about climate science.

To sign up for the newsletter go to Ireland's Weather Channel on Facebook, or email: irelandsweatherchannel@gmail.com