Due to technical issues the Legal Weather Report Request form is currently not available – please contact us with your request by email legal@met.ie and we will process your request.
If you have requested a Legal Weather Report via the online request form since the 7th January 2025, please contact us directly at legal@met.ie and we will revert to you. Apologies for the inconvenience.
Met Éireann provides meteorological reports for the legal, insurance and engineering professions or from private enquirers. Our Meteorologist carefully analyses and interprets detailed weather information extracted from archived data.
Sample archived data:
- Hourly Synoptic charts
- 6-hourly North Atlantic charts
- Upper level winds
- Radar Images
- Satellite pictures
- Lightning strike maps
- Climate data
Met Éireann Services to the Legal Sector
Weather Reports
Met Éireann provides weather reports for the legal, insurance and engineering professions or from private enquirers. A report is produced by a professional Meteorologist who examines all relevant information and gives an opinion on the actual weather. The Legal Weather Report Request form is available here. Only online applications are accepted.
Response Times:
Ideally, reports are provided within 2 working weeks of our receipt of a request. However, demand for reports can be very variable and it can sometimes take 3 or 4 weeks.
Urgent Requests:
Urgent reports usually can be provided within two working days on payment of a 50% surcharge.
Charges:
Meteorologist reports are provided under the terms of the Met Éireann “Statement of Public-Service Functions” and attract a charge* which represents the cost of provision of the service. The charge is based on the number of hours taken to produce the report with a minimum of 1 hour. For a report covering a single location for a single day, the minimum charge is applied. Current charges are available here.
Liability for charges:
The person/company requesting a report or court attendance is liable for cost and this cost must be paid promptly on receipt of the invoice. The use to which the report is put and whether/when/how much the requesting individual/company is eventually paid for their services does not affect this liability.
Confidentiality:
Met Éireann treats requests for reports in confidence. It occasionally happens that a report may be requested by both parties involved in a case arising from the same incident. In this case, the requested reports will be provided without reference to each other. Any person/company requesting that a Met Éireann Meteorologist attend court or be on standby to attend is directly liable for the charges involved. This is an arrangement made directly with Met Éireann and payment is due without reference to the outcome or timescale of the case.
Court Attendance
Met Éireann typically provides hundreds of Meteorologist reports each year. Where court proceedings are initiated, the question of court attendance by a Meteorologist may arise. Court appearances are immensely time-consuming and have the potential, even in moderate numbers, to overwhelm our Meteorologist availability and cripple our ability to perform other important work. Therefore, we would ask our customers to consider the following when considering the need for a Meteorologist in court.
Is the weather contentious?
It is our experience over many years that the weather report is often not a source of contention. Weather reports are normally agreed among parties but this sometimes happens after our Meteorologist has travelled to court or put in some preparatory work. Even when our Meteorologist is called to give evidence, this often amounts to merely repeating and confirming the contents of the report, sometimes involves providing a little elaboration or supplementary opinion and rarely involves any questioning of the report contents. We would urge all parties to attempt to agree the weather report if possible before requesting a Meteorologist to do preparatory work or actually travel to court.
Logistics of Meteorologist court attendance:
In order to make potential court attendance as efficient as possible and to minimise charges, we provide the following options:
- Forward alerting. This gives us an indication that court attendance may be needed at a specified date in the future. It allows us to plan. There is no preparatory work and no charge.
- Standby. Placing a Meteorologist on standby for a specific date or range of dates means that the Meteorologist will review the weather report and familiarise with the weather over the relevant period. S/he is then available to travel to court at 1-hour’s notice. The charge for standby is half the rate for attendance. The minimum charge* is a half-day and charging is in half-day blocks. If standby is not cancelled before 1 p.m., the afternoon will also be charged. If standby is cancelled before the day arrives, the minimum half-day charge will apply to cover preparation work and disruption to other work.
- Actual attendance. This is where a Meteorologist is requested to travel to court. Charges* apply in half-day blocks including travel time. If attendance is cancelled 5 working days in advance ( i.e. attendance on Friday cancelled the previous Friday ), no charge will be made. Cancellation at shorter notice will attract a half-day standby charge.
Who will attend?
In some instances, we are requested to provide the same named Meteorologist who produced a report. This may be possible but sometimes is difficult or impossible. Given the length of time it takes for a case to come to court, it is often the case that the author of a report has been relocated or has retired. When the date is known, we can provide the name of the Meteorologist who will attend. We would greatly prefer to provide services by arrangement with our customers in the most mutually beneficial way.