Should we be expecting hurricane Joaquin to arrive in Ireland soon?

Hurricane Joaquin is swirling its way around the Atlantic at the moment, just north of Bermuda.

There has been much speculation about where the hurricane is going to end up as it journey’s across the Atlantic. Many people are wondering whether we should be preparing ourselves here in Ireland.

So, should we be getting out the sandbags and finally ditching our last minute efforts to visit the beach?

The short answer seems to be that no one is actually entirely sure.

Worried weather forecasters were issuing warnings that hurricane, which was packing winds of up to 140 kilometres-per-hour was going to hit Britain and Ireland.

However, it would seem that storm has been weakened since it battered the Bahamas and has been moved to a category one storm.

The Weather Channel UK forecaster Leon Brown said that the storm was likely to turn south by the weekend.

“It should now keep south of the UK as a strong ridge and surface high pressure will build westwards from Scandinavia and Russia later this week effectively blocking Joaquin's eastward motion.”

Well, that is a relief.

However, forecasters this side of the Atlantic are still keeping a close eye on Joaquin.

Met Éireann have said that the storm is “struggling to make up its mind” about where to go, according to TheJournal.ie. Hmmm- sounds like us trying to pick a spot to head to of a Friday evening.

If it does arrive on Irish shores we are assured that it would probably not in face be a hurricane, rather a winter storm instead. Lovely.