Met Éireann has defended how a Status Yellow warning was updated to a Status Orange just an hour before Storm Elsa caused chaos in Galway – including damage to cars of cinema-goers who were watching ‘Frozen 2’.

Councillors in Galway criticised the national meteorological service after they were “caught on the hop” when the storm caused damage to cars and houses on the Atlantic coast.

Labour councillor Niall McNelis said as a result of the weather warning being only a Status Yellow, many locals were caught off guard after parking their cars for Christmas parties and for a showing of the new ‘Frozen’ movie in a cinema in the city.

The ironically named Storm Elsa – Elsa is the heroine in the film – caused a swell in the low tide, blowing waves on to the Salthill promenade where cars were submerged by the water and pushed along the road, while some houses were also flooded.

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“A lot of people were out at Christmas parties or at the cinema and didn’t realise this was happening. Everyone got caught on the hop,” Mr McNelis said. “It was very scary. That wind came from nowhere, that’s why it caught everybody.

“Some of the cars have been rammed into bottle banks down there and a number of them crashed into each other because the sheer volume of water just pushed them to collide, around 8.30pm or 9pm when it really got heavy.

“Thank God nobody got hurt but the question must be asked – how did we go from a yellow to an orange so quickly?”

A spokesperson for Met Éireann has responded to the criticism and said the forecasting service can only operate on information available to it.

Indications that wind levels could be worse than Status Yellow were included in the original warning, the spokesperson said.

“It was a very quick-moving system and it has moved way up to the north now. There was a weather warning out from the day before. The actual yellow wind warning stated that winds would be stronger than yellow-level winds on the west and south-west coast,” the spokesperson said.

“It stipulated that for a time in the evening and early night, winds would peak, with stronger winds possible in those areas. Our forecasts are based on the best available information a the time.

“We don’t follow one model, we have to analyse many different models and then make a judgment call.

“On balance, the evidence was that it was a high-level yellow warning with the possibility of, for short times, the wind peaking higher along that coast.”

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