RTÉ’s Teresa Mannion has told of the moment her husband discovered she had gone viral after she begged the public, ‘Don’t make unnecessary journeys’.

The Dublin native hit headlines back in 2015 when she stood on the promenade in Salthill in Galway, looking drenched as she delivered a weather report for the national broadcaster during Storm Desmond.

And with just months to go before the star is set to retire from the station, Teresa looks back at how her husband, Dave O’Connell, and her late father, Thomas, who passed away in 2018, reacted to the moment that became the most talked about clip of the decade.

Speaking to EVOKE, she said: ‘Some colourful moments do get a lot of attention…. I think this one is with me for life.

‘I remember when he (Dave) saw it first and he said, “Oh my god look at what someone is after making of you”.

‘The night of the video, he rang me and my dad – God rest him – asking was I okay.

‘People came out of the pubs saying to come in for a hot whiskey,’ she said laughing.

‘No he (Dave) wasn’t worried about me at all. He just thought I had gone off my rocker. He was slagging me like everyone else.’

Teresa recalled how the moment just spontaneously happened as soon as they went live on air.

‘I was just very close – a bit too close – to the Atlantic Sea. I couldn’t hear myself think.

‘I think the heavens opened as well during the live and everything just started to go a bit wonky. I couldn’t hear the news reader in the earpiece anymore so I just kept going. I had assumed they would cut away from me.’

But she said she felt like she almost set a trend for presenters after it.

‘It really set off a trend. Oh my god, everyone was out.

‘I didn’t do it on purpose. The reason why it went viral was because it was in no way calculated, we didn’t manufacture it.

‘The amount of people who stood in wind-blown places after it. It seemed like every reporter was told to go out in the worst of the elements.’

The 64-year-old admitted ‘every single day’ someone makes a remark to her about the clip.

‘It is just every single day. At least one person will say it to me.

‘There is no rhyme or reason – everyone knows me from children to older people, they will ask me about the weather.

‘They love saying it to me. And people have been really lovely.’

But she admitted that her mental health would’ve been greatly affected if she went viral for something ‘negative’.

‘If I had gone viral for something really negative, I think my mental health would’ve been affected.

‘I actually feel really sorry for those who had horrendous viral experiences. Mine was just a bit of craic. Mine just kept giving, really.’