White Christmas Day looks unlikely

IN spite of overnight lows of -12C and daytime temperatures of just -5C expected in some parts today, the country now looks likely not to have a white Christmas Day.

White Christmas Day looks unlikely

According to Met Éireann, right up to Christmas Eve, much of the country will remain under a blanket of snow.

Today, that blanket will be added too with further snow showers over east Leinster and possible heavy showers over west Munster.

Tonight it looks set to be bitterly cold again with temperatures dipping as low as -12C once again and further snow over Leinster and Munster.

Over the following days, there will be a similar pattern with sub-zero daytime temperatures and night time lows in negative double figures.

However, on Christmas day, the temperature will shoot up to as high as 10C as a much milder south to southeast airflow will extend countrywide.

It will bring outbreaks of rain and what the weather service describes as a rapid thaw and — for the first time for a number of days — no frost on Christmas night.

In Cork, city manager Tim Lucey last night said the local authority has enough salt to last until Christmas Day, following the delivery of 30 tonnes yesterday.

But he said because the NRA is managing the supply of salt to local authorities, there is as yet no certainty about deliveries towards the end of the week. He warned that the council’s prioritised gritting routes, details of which are available on the council’s website, may need to be rearranged to ensure that those areas covered would receive the right amount of salt treatment.

The northside of the city has been worst affected. There were 100 weather related phone calls to the council today. The worst affected areas were Lover’s Walk, Gardiner’s Hill and Popham’s Road. Effort will be made today to deal with those areas.

The army was drafted in over the weekend to help council crews clear footpaths.

Two crews are working overnight on salting main routes with 17 gritting crews working by day.

Three civil defence units were deployed to help the HSE and with the delivery of Meals on Wheels to the northside of the city.

The Cork Homeless Forum has made arrangements for people sleeping rough and Mr Lucey said no issues have arisen so far.

In Kerry, the National Roads Authority (NRA) was strongly criticised for not providing sufficient salt supplies.

County manager Tom Curran said he was “not at all satisfied” with the service being received from the NRA and the council is now to look at ways of obtaining its own salt supplies for future winters.

He said the council had, in recent days, to send two of its trucks to Greenore, Co Louth, for 60 tonnes of salt.

“At the moment, we are limited to where the NRA will allow us purchase salt,” he said.

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