Icy snap here to stay as temperatures fall to -9C
Chaos on the roads and schools forced to shut early
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Tuesday December 22 2009
THE country remained firmly in the icy grip of Arctic-like weather last night as treacherous conditions led to school closures and transport disruption.
Whole swathes of the country bore the brunt of the icy blast as snow, black ice and below zero temperatures caused havoc on roads while motorists were warned to avoid unnecessary journeys.
And forecasters yesterday warned that there is more to come, with the big freeze set to continue right up until Christmas Day with snow, ice and sub-zero temperatures.
As the harsh conditions continued, there were claims that roads had not been gritted despite the dangerous weather conditions due to a shortage of funding for local authorities.
"Councils are saying that they haven't got the funding, manpower or materials to get on with the job but it is not acceptable that this essential work is just neglected," Fine Gael's road safety spokesperson Shane McEntee said.
But the National Roads Authority said it expected that local authorities would act in accordance with their responsibilities.
A spokesman pointed out that local councils were responsible for managing their own road networks and gritted routes as appropriate.
More freezing conditions are on the way tonight with air temperatures set to fall to between -1C and -5C, according to Met Eireann which has a weather warning in place. Values will drop even further tomorrow night when they are forecast to dip as low as -9C.
The Arctic-like conditions will continue on Christmas Eve but are expected to be replaced on Christmas Day by a "more normal" Atlantic airmass bringing a rapid thaw and some outbreaks of rain.
For thousands of children across the north-west, Christmas came early yesterday as schools closed because of adverse weather conditions.
Hazardous roads and fresh snowfalls led to the cancellation of school buses on many routes in Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal and hundreds of schools right across the region were forced to close their doors.
Many roads were left impassable and up to 15cm of snow fell in parts of Longford and Leitrim.
AA Roadwatch described conditions across the country as "treacherous". While many national routes had been treated, a lot of secondary roads remained frozen since Sunday with road temperatures dropping as low as -4.9C in parts of the South and East.
Cancellations
"There is both fresh and compacted snow as well as ice and black ice to contend with and there is a very high risk of skidding so make sure you know what to do," warned AA Roadwatch controller Nicola Hudson.
Severe weather and road conditions resulted in disruption, delays and some cancellations on Bus Eireann services via Limerick.
The 9.35pm service from Limerick to Tralee was cancelled and evening services to Tralee and Killarney from Limerick were dependent on weather conditions. While most town-to-town services in Kerry were operating, the Tralee-Killorglin- Killarney and Killarney-Killorglin-Caherciveen services were cancelled.
Services between Tralee, Killarney and Cork also operated but with some cancellations of departures and delays and there were slight delays on services operating through Dundalk, Cavan and Monaghan.
With widespread disruption to air travel in Britain and on the Continent, Dublin airport escaped the worst of the delays and Aer Lingus said about 90pc of its flights were running on an average of one hour behind schedule.
However, more cancellations were expected last night after adverse weather forced the closure of London's Gatwick airport.
Ryanair also said there had been some delays -- the longest a four-hour delay to a Fuerteventura flight which had been affected by snowfalls earlier in the day. Only one flight from Kerry to Dublin was cancelled.
Meanwhile, the Irish Water Safety organisation issued a special safety warning as thousands of people around the country prepare for sponsored Christmas swims for charity.
"This Christmas season, tragic accidents will happen unless we all heed the advice advanced by Irish Water Safety in relation to all water-related locations where people are at risk," IWS chairman Frank Nolan said.
"Needless water-related accidents occur at home, at pools, on farms, at inland waterways and around out coastline. Last year resulted in 158 persons being drowned in all types of circumstances."
Send us your photos of the winter weather
- Fergus Black and Anita Guidera
Irish Independent
