Temperatures to plummet to below -10 degrees this week

SOME OF the coldest November weather experienced in living memory will continue this week with temperatures plummeting below minus 10 degrees at night.

A record November low of minus 9.2 which was experienced yesterday morning at Casement Aerodrome could be surpassed on Wednesday or Thursday night.

“The winds will come from an easterly direction bringing in Siberian air and we could get temperatures below minus 10,” warned Met Éireann spokeswoman Evelyn Cusack.

Snow will be confined to coastal areas, but freezing fog means the temperatures will not rise above zero in many places during the day.

There is no end in sight to the unseasonal cold spell with temperatures to remain at least eight degrees below the norm for November.

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts is expecting cold weather for the whole of Europe for the next 10 days, the longest forecast range possible.

Road temperatures fell as low as minus 9.4 on the N11 Arklow bypass yesterday evening and ice and snow is making road temperatures increasingly dangerous.

Snow will affect coastal counties in the northwest, west and east of the country. The rest of the country is likely to be affected by freezing fog and ice.

The unexpected bad weather, following on from the cold spell in January, will put further strain on local authorities which are already struggling financially.

Mayo county manager Peter Hynes said: “I’ll put it this way. A prolonged cold spell is something we could well do without.”

Commuters have been asked to log onto the Department of Transport website at transport.ie to monitor traffic movements.

At a briefing in Dublin yesterday the Government’s Taskforce on Emergency Planning warned motorists that roads are expected to be extremely icy this morning with traffic moving much more slowly than usual.

The National Roads Authority has stockpiled 80,000 tonnes of salt supplies; 20,000 tonnes is needed in an average winter.

Nevertheless, of the State’s 90,000km of roads just 16,000km – the main roads – are due to be gritted.

Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann said driving conditions were extremely difficult and warned of disruptions to services. Iarnród Éireann expects to run all Intercity, Dart and commuter services as normal tomorrow.

All the main airports in the State operated normally yesterday despite the bad weather.