The local Ceilometer

Ceilometer. Not a word you hear every day. But everything has a word, and a ceilometer is a device for measuring the height of a cloud base (the lowest altitude of the visible portion of a cloud). It typically does it using triangulation or lasers, and costs a few thousand euros. Happily, because we are where we are, there’s one right beside us in Sandymount that’s completely free.

Step outside the agency door. Turn right. Walk a few feet. And there it is; the landmark twin chimneys of the ESB Poolbeg Generating Station. We know they are 209 metres high, but they also have a handy scale painted onto them (on purpose, I imagine), which allows us to work out the exact level of the cloudbase and plan the day ahead.

The 46 metre level isn’t used much except for some days in summer where it’s useful for measuring the height of the sea fog that rolls in occasionally. But that’s another, eh, ometer.