Another two days of bitter cold, but thaw on the way

AFTER a low of -9C in some parts of the country overnight, Met Éireann is predicting another 48 hours of bitterly cold weather before temperatures finally begin to rise once more.

The weather service says that from Thursday and Friday the country will see a long overdue thaw with values approaching, but not quite reaching, December norms.

In the meantime all four provinces will see further snow showers though they are unlikely to be on the scale experienced over the last week.

Daytime temperatures in parts of the country will struggle to reach positive figures today and for some there will be a low of -2C.

That means the snow, rain and sleet which will affect large parts of the country will be at risk of turning into black ice meaning driving conditions will remain dangerous.

Yesterday, the weather continued to take its toll in a number of counties with schools closed, secondary roads extremely hazardous and bus services severely delayed or curtailed.

Water supplies were also badly affected in some areas.

Kerry County Council said it may introduce water rationing if people continue to leave their taps running at night during the cold spell.

Council spokesman Padraig Corkery urged the public to conserve water, saying there had been a 20% increase in demand across the county.

“If that continues we may have to turn off, or curtail, water supplies at night,” he said.

Mr Corkery said the Kerry Central Regional Water Scheme, which supplies a large section of the county, including Killarney, Tralee and Castleisland, was under pressure to maintain supplies.

Overnight last night, Wexford County Council shut off the water in certain areas of Gorey, Enniscorthy and Kilmuckridge to conserve supplies.

However the city manager in Cork, which has escaped the worst of the extreme conditions, last night told local councillors the city is ice-free and open for business.

Tim Lucey said the council’s crisis management team had been meeting daily for the last 10 days to manage the city’s response to the weather crisis.

And he said plans are well advanced to increase the level of monitoring of leaks, which will be inevitable as frozen pipes begin to thaw over the coming days.

“We are satisfied that we are on top of it,” he said.

The AA later said its patrols attended just under 4,000 breakdowns last week from motorists stranded in bitterly cold conditions — a 30% increase on the previous week.