Cold snap to continue but little snow likely

THE COLD snap is to continue, with sub-zero temperatures at night, Met Éireann has forecast.

An Atlantic weather front which met cold air over Ireland caused heavy snowfalls across the country yesterday, causing the cancellation of many sports events including racing at Leopardstown.

However, in spite of the cold, Ireland is likely to have “little or no” more snow this week.

There is a possibility that a storm system likely to cause severe weather in the south of England and northern France this afternoon will bring snow and sleet to south and east coasts here this evening, but the rest of the week is likely to be largely cold and dry.

A brief warm spell affected the south and west of the country and caused a thaw, but temperatures remained around freezing in the northeast, especially around Monaghan and Cavan.

The continuing bad weather caused the cancellation of horse racing at Leopardstown yesterday and its feature race, the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup. It has been rescheduled for next Sunday.

Eleven Allianz National Hurling League matches, including the much anticipated meeting of Galway and All-Ireland champions Kilkenny at Pearse Stadium in Galway, the National Football League match between Leitrim and Carlow in Carrick-on-Shannon and three Leinster U-21 games, were also cancelled.

Another casualty of the weather was the Irish Championship Rallycross at Mondello Park.

Flights at Dublin airport were operating normally, but heavy snow caused the runway at City of Derry Airport to close yesterday until the early afternoon. AA Roadwatch has warned that roads could be “extremely dangerous” this morning because of temperatures which fell as low as -5 degrees last night. “There is a lot of slush and melted snow, which turned to ice overnight, so we’re advising motorists to drive slowly,” Aoife Carragher of AA Roadwatch said.

Treacherous conditions are expected across the country, but particularly in midlands areas.

Extra care is advised on secondary roads, over high ground and in sheltered areas, and motorists are urged to reduce speed significantly and keep a safe distance from the vehicle in front.

Forecasters are expecting this winter could be one of the coldest on record, especially in the east, where Dublin has already experienced its coldest December and January for 18 years. February, regarded as a winter month by Met Éireann, has experienced well below average temperatures.

Met Éireann is expecting the cold weather to continue this week with day-time temperatures no higher than 5 to 6 degrees. “We’re going to get low single figures by day and there will be cold, frosty nights, so the danger of ice is there for all the nights this week, but we are not expecting any significant falls of snow,” Met Éireann forecaster Pat Clarke said.

The south of England and Wales are bracing for more bad weather today which could bring up to 20cm (eight inches) of snow to some parts of the UK. Similar conditions caused the cancellation of dozens of flights from Ireland to the UK last week and passengers are advised to check airline schedules if they are travelling to England this afternoon.