Some schools may close tomorrow as Storm Lorenzo heads straight for Ireland.
Met Eireann have issued a Status Orange warning for several counties in the south and west with the vortex expected to make landfall tomorrow.
And now the Department of Education has released a statement advising schools to "err on the side of caution" with regard to closures.
Individual schools will be permitted to make the decision themselves whether they shut, depending on the severity of the weather tomorrow.
A Department of Education spokesman said: "A status orange wind warning has been issued by Met Éireann for Galway, Mayo, Clare, Cork, Kerry and Limerick and will be in place from 6pm on Thursday to 3am on Friday morning.
"Schools and all education centres (universities, IoTs and further education centres) in areas affected by a status orange alert should remain vigilant, and keep themselves appraised of any hourly and other updates from Met Éireann, and from their local authorities, local radio, and an Garda Síochána.
"In all events, and if in any doubt, schools and other education settings should err on the side of caution. Schools are empowered to make closure decisions if, in their judgment in the interests of the safety of the school community, it is prudent to do so.
"Any and all decisions about school closures will be informed by, as well as prevailing and predicted conditions, any damage that might have been caused to school buildings overnight or at any time during the storm, and whether such damage –where it exists – might present a risk to safety.
"Similarly other education settings should make closure decisions based on those considerations."
It comes as Storm Lorenzo is set to carve a corridor of destruction along the entire west coast.
Destructive storm force winds, torrential rain, thunder and lightning and guaranteed power cuts will hit Ireland from Thursday night.
But we should be on guard for Storm Lorenzo as early as 9am on Thursday morning.
It’s the western coastal counties who are in the eye of the storm and will fare worst, according to Met Eireann chief Eveylyn Cusack.
“We have a Status Orange issued for Galway, Mayo, Clare, Cork, Kerry and Limerick,” she said at a briefing by the National Emergency Coordination Group.
But there is also a Status Yellow for the rest of the country - and there’s no guarantee that the most dangerous conditions will be confined to the West.
Last year Storm Opelia suddenly veered away from Dublin and the east coast at the last moment.” Storms like this can be unpredictable,” Ms Cusack said.
Lorenzo is still a Category 1 hurricane but will transition to a storm as it approaches Ireland and western Europe from the south west. The Azores are being lashed by winds of 140kph.
But even though Lorenzo will be a storm when it reaches us it will bring violent Storm force 11 gales.
