THE ARCTIC conditions which caused severe disruptions to air and road transport yesterday are to continue for the foreseeable future.
Following a severe snow shower in the capital yesterday afternoon almost 100 flights in and out of Dublin airport and all Dublin Bus services were cancelled. City centre traffic also came to a standstill for a number of hours.
Hundreds of schools will not reopen after the Christmas break this morning as dangerous road conditions are expected following a severe overnight freeze.
Opposition parties yesterday called on the Government to declare a “national weather emergency” as local authorities struggled to grit the main routes around the State.
Met Éireann said a daytime thaw was very unlikely over the next week.
“There is no sign of thaw or any return to mild weather. It’s going to stay exceptionally cold,” Vincent O’Shea of Met Éireann said yesterday.
The next seven days is “looking rather ominous” because the Siberian windflow and Arctic temperatures will remain for at least the next week, Mr O’Shea said. “There is no scope for a return in mild weather and no end in sight,” he added. The weather will remain mostly dry in the coming days but temperatures as low as minus 10 may be recorded, Mr O’Shea said. However, there is expected to be more snowfall on Sunday and early next week
As a result of the heavy snowfall in the capital, the runway at Dublin airport was closed for almost five hours yesterday to allow for it to be cleared.
Siobhán Moore of the Dublin Airport Authority said the decision was not taken lightly but the runway had to be closed for safety reasons following friction testing.
“The priority is that it has to be cleared. The build-up of slush makes landing and taking off on the runway unsafe,” Ms Moore said.
There were long queues in the airport yesterday as passengers tried to rebook flights while other passengers waited on delayed planes.
The closure of many airports in the UK for long periods yesterday also hampered flights in and out of the State.
Many flights to and from Shannon, Cork, Knock and Dublin were severely delayed or cancelled due to severe weather at Gatwick, Manchester, London Stansted, London, Luton and Bristol airports.
Treacherous road condition which caused long delays for motorists in Leinster and Dublin city yesterday were expected to be repeated this morning following a hard overnight freeze. It took hours for many motorists to travel through the city. Some key city centre roads were closed at times for gritting and many were extremely icy.
Dublin Fire Brigade reported difficulties on roads because the ambulance vehicles are rear-wheel drive and the roads were “like a skating rink”, a spokesman for its control centre said last night.
It had been inundated with calls about people who had been injured by slips and falls.
“There are queues of two to three hours for ambulances,” a spokesman said.
There were severe disruptions and cancellations on many Bus Éireann services in the east yesterday evening. Dublin Bus hoped its services would resume this morning following overnight gritting.
Waste, postal and social welfare services were also affected by the weather. Weekly social welfare payments to some 27,000 people which were due to be delivered by An Post today have been delayed.
Opposition parties yesterday called on the Government to implement a national emergency plan and to draft in the Army to grit roads.
Labour transport spokesman Tommy Broughan said the Government needed to “recognise the seriousness of the situation”.
With conditions set to worsen over the next few days, Ireland should be placed on an emergency footing, Jimmy Deenihan of Fine Gael said yesterday.
“Local authorities are clearly unable to cope. Yet the Government’s only response has been a deafening silence and the country is coming to a standstill.” he said.
The Department of Transport yesterday advised all local authorities to put elements of their emergency plans in place.
Such measures would include the use of Civil Defence personnel and four-wheel drive vehicles to salt and grit certain areas and to give access to medical staff, the department said.
Farmers called for Government action as “rural Ireland has come to a halt”, IFA deputy president Eddie Downey said yesterday.