Photo: Sarah777 · CC BY-SA 2.0Flood, radon and landslides in Ballinalee
Ballinalee has no Hazard risk Grade: Irish places under 1,000 residents aren’t graded. The figures below are still its own.
What Ballinalee faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Low-lying homes
Radon
Ballinalee has no Hazard risk Grade
Each figure is placed among Irish towns as the grade would place it, without a letter.
October 2025 brought the River Camlin’s 2nd-highest day at Argar since 1972
Each winter’s highest level (October to September) at the OPW’s Argar gauge, 4.3 km from Ballinalee on the same river, since 1972, in metres above the gauge’s zero. Nine days in ten it runs between 0.20 m and 1.71 m.
- 6 December 20152.80 m
- 4 October 20252.69 m
- 13 November 20252.66 m
- 22 October 19872.62 m
- 14 November 20142.59 m
- 31 December 20152.57 m
Since 1972 the River Camlin has run above its usual top on 1,032 days, most of them in the winters of 2025–26 and 2022–23.
Measured by its highest day, last winter (2025–26) was the 2nd-highest of the 44 on record here.
Source: OPW Hydro-Data (waterlevel.ie/hydro-data), Argar gauge (station 26020): daily maximum and mean levels, inspected and provisional data. The usual range is the 5th to 95th percentile of daily means, worked out by TownRatings. Live levels are on waterlevel.ie.
Weather and flood warnings for Ballinalee
Where to see the warnings in force, and what this page can’t count.
Met Éireann issues yellow, orange and red warnings for rain, wind and coastal flooding county by county; Ballinalee is covered by County Longford’s.
| Warning | What Met Éireann means by it |
|---|---|
| Yellow | Weather that isn’t unusual but can be dangerous in places: be aware. |
| Orange | Infrequent, dangerous weather that can put people and property at risk: be prepared. |
| Red | Rare, extremely dangerous weather: take action to protect yourself and your property. |
Met Éireann doesn’t publish an open archive of past warnings, so how often warnings have covered Ballinalee can’t be counted here.
No OPW flood relief scheme protects Ballinalee
The Office of Public Works’ completed flood relief schemes and the areas each one benefits (OPW open data, CC BY 4.0).
None of the OPW’s completed flood relief schemes has a benefiting area that takes in Ballinalee’s homes. The OPW builds schemes where the risk to homes is greatest, so most towns have none.
No other place across County Longford has an OPW flood relief scheme either.
| Town | Scheme | Designed for | Homes behind it | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mullingar Westmeath | Mullingar Flood Relief Scheme | 1 in 100 | 0.2% | 35 km |
| Tullamore Offaly | Tullamore Flood Relief Scheme | 1 in 100 | 2.4% | 57 km |
| Ballinasloe Galway | Ballinasloe (Derrymullen) Flood Relief Scheme | 1 in 100 | 3.2% | 62 km |
| Duleek Meath | Duleek Flood Relief Scheme | 1 in 100 | 12% | 82 km |
| Dunboyne Meath | River Tolka (Clonee and Dunboyne) Scheme | 1 in 100 | 14% | 88 km |
| Celbridge Kildare | Shinkeen Stream (Hazelhatch) Flood Relief Scheme | 1 in 100 | 2.6% | 88 km |
Ballinalee is in the lowest radon band
The EPA’s radon map: for each 10 km square, the estimated share of homes above the national reference level of 200 Bq/m³.
A square where 10% or more of homes are estimated above the reference level is a High Radon Area; 0% of Ballinalee’s homes are in one. The map is an estimate by area: two neighbouring houses can differ a lot. Too few homes are mapped here, so the figure is the square at the town’s centre.
A test is the only way to know a home’s level: two detectors, left for three months in a living room and a bedroom.
EPA radon map of Ireland (10 km grid), averaged over the town’s homes (CC BY 4.0).
One EPA-licensed site within 5 km of Ballinalee’s centre, none inside it
Factories, farms, power plants and waste sites that hold an EPA licence for their emissions, in Ballinalee and around its centre.
| Site | Licence and activity | Away |
|---|---|---|
| Mr Padraig Kiernan (Ballinalee Pig Farm) | Industrial Emissions licence · intensive farming | 2.6 km |
| Mr Padraig Kiernan (Granard Farms) | Industrial Emissions licence · intensive farming | 6.1 km |
| Kiernan Structural Steel Limited | IPC licence | 6.2 km |
| Mr. Conor Smith | Industrial Emissions licence · intensive farming | 7.1 km |
| Mr Padraig Kiernan (Aughaboy Pig Farm) | Industrial Emissions licence · intensive farming | 7.6 km |
| Glennon Brothers Timber Limited | Industrial Emissions licence · wood, paper and textiles | 8.7 km |
| Kiernan Milling | Industrial Emissions licence · food and drink | 8.9 km |
| C&D Foods | Industrial Emissions licence · food and drink | 8.9 km |
| Activity | Sites |
|---|---|
| Intensive farming | 4 |
| Food and drink | 3 |
| Not classed in the register | 2 |
| Wood, paper and textiles | 1 |
| Waste | 1 |
Within 5 km: one under an Industrial Emissions licence.
An EPA licence sets what a site may release to air, water and land; it doesn’t mark the site as an accident hazard.
Sites holding dangerous substances in bulk come under the COMAH (Seveso) rules, but the HSA’s list of them has no open licence, so upper- and lower-tier sites aren’t counted here.
Source: EPA registers of Industrial Emissions, IPC and waste licences, sites licensed on 31 October 2026; distances in a straight line from the town’s centre.
Hazards in the places around Ballinalee
Low-lying homes, radon and landslide ground, town by town.
| Town | Low-lying | Radon | Landslides |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ballinalee | – | 0.7% | – |
| Drumlish 1,124 · 8.8 km | – | 0% | 0% |
| Edgeworthstown 2,199 · 9.0 km | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Longford 10,952 · 10 km | 0% | 0.8% | 0% |
| Granard 1,058 · 11 km | – | 18% | 0% |
None of the measured places around Ballinalee has many homes standing low by big water.
A dash under Low-lying: not measured there (too few homes with detailed ground heights), not none.
Get ready for what Ballinalee faces
What to do, and what to ask before you move.
- Never walk or drive through floodwater: 30 cm of moving water can float a car.
- Move valuables, papers and medicines upstairs.
- Turn off gas, electricity and water if you’re told to.
- Test over three months, in a living room and a bedroom.
- Above 200 Bq/m³, a small sump and fan usually fixes it.
- The EPA sells radon test kits at radon.ie and lists registered contractors who fix high readings.
- Bring in or tie down bins, trampolines and anything the wind can lift.
- Keep away from coastal paths and piers while an orange or red warning is in force.
- Charge phones and keep a torch: fallen lines are the commonest storm damage.
- After the storm, report a fallen line to ESB Networks and keep well clear of it.
- Ask whether the home has ever flooded, and get a buildings insurance quote before you commit: flood cover isn’t always offered.
- Ask the seller or landlord for a radon test result, or test in your first months there.
- Check the address on floodinfo.ie: the OPW’s flood maps and its record of past floods.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- An estimate, not a flood map. Low-lying homes is a TownRatings modelling step: each home’s ground height from LiDAR, against the level of the nearest big river (Strahler order 5 or more), lake or estuary within 1 km, or the sea within 2 km. A home within 5 m of the water’s level, or below 4 m near the sea, counts.
- Flood counts only one way. A high share of low-lying homes lowers the Hazard risk Grade; a low share never raises it, because defences, small streams, culverts, groundwater and flash floods don’t show in ground heights. Below the national median a town scores as the median.
- Defences aren’t counted. Flood defences aren’t taken off: the OPW scheme that protects the most homes is shown instead, with its design standard.
- Measured where the heights are detailed. A town is measured, and counted, only where 80% of its homes stand on LiDAR heights. Elsewhere the page says flooding isn’t measured, never that the town is dry.
- Radon is an estimate by area. The EPA’s radon map gives the estimated share of homes above 200 Bq/m³ for each 10 km square, averaged here over the town’s homes. It says where to test, not what one house holds.
- The sea is measured by height. Homes count as low by the sea when their ground is under 4 m and within 2 km of coastal or estuary water; waves, surges and erosion aren’t modelled.
- Landslide ground is a map of where slides could start. GSI’s susceptibility map rates the ground itself; it doesn’t record past slides or say when one will happen.
- Bathing water is rated season by season. The EPA classes each identified bathing water from four seasons of samples; a rating says how clean the water has been, not how safe it is to swim.
- One town, many streets. Risk is street by street. Check a specific address on floodinfo.ie before you buy or rent.
Check any address against the OPW’s official flood maps on floodinfo.ie
Questions about flooding and hazards in Ballinalee
Does Ballinalee flood?
Too few homes are mapped in Ballinalee to estimate how many stand low by big water. For a single address, the OPW’s official flood maps and past floods are on floodinfo.ie.
Is radon a problem in Ballinalee?
The EPA’s map estimates that about 0.7% of homes around Ballinalee are above the radon reference level of 200 Bq/m³: a lower share than in 86% of Irish towns. 0% of its homes are in a High Radon Area. The only way to know a house is a three-month test.
How does Ballinalee compare with the places around it?
Radon estimates around Ballinalee run from 0% in Drumlish to 18% in Granard; Ballinalee’s own is 0.7%.
Flood: TownRatings’ estimate from ground heights, not an official flood map. Contains Irish Public Sector Data (Geological Survey Ireland, the Office of Public Works and the EPA) licensed under CC BY 4.0; Copernicus DEM © DLR e.V. and © Airbus, provided under COPERNICUS by the EU and ESA; © OpenStreetMap contributors. Radon and bathing water: EPA (CC BY 4.0). Landslide susceptibility: Geological Survey Ireland (CC BY 4.0).
Sources: low-lying homes: TownRatings’ estimate from GSI and OPW LiDAR, Copernicus GLO-30 and the EPA river network · radon: EPA radon map · landslides: GSI landslide susceptibility · river levels: OPW Hydro-Data (waterlevel.ie/hydro-data) · industrial sites: EPA licence registers. Under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).
Contains Central Statistics Office (CSO) data, Census 2022, and Tailte Éireann boundaries (CSO Urban Areas, Small Areas, local electoral areas, constituencies), under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).