Power restored to thousands of homes after bad weather

Power has been restored to thousands of homes across the country.

Almost 8,000 homes were without power for most of Wednesday after snow and bad weather hit the country overnight.

However, all of the affected homes had their power restored by 6pm on Wednesday.

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In Spain a man walks on snow-covered road in Piedrafita de o Cebreiro in Galicia. Only last week temperaturs reached more than 22 degrees. Photograph: Eliseo Trigo/EPA

An ESB spokeswoman confirmed 16,500 customers had no power on Wednesday morning.

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Crews managed to restore power to 8,700 homes by 10.20am. However, 7,784 homes remained without power.

The areas most affected by power outages were Thurles, Co Tipperary, Portlaoise, Co Laois, and Co Waterford.

Two weather warnings for snow, ice and heavy rains were in place on Wednesday morning, as motorists faced traffic disruption.

Met Éireann issued a nationwide yellow warning for snow and ice following sub-zero temperatures and wintry showers overnight.

This weather warning was valid until 10am on Wednesday.

A warning for heavy rain was also issued for counties Dublin, Louth and Wicklow. The warning is in place until Thursday on 7am.

Gardaí have asked people to be extra careful on the roads and footpaths.

AA Roadwatch advised motorists to allow extra time for journeys.

“Give yourself plenty of time to reach your destination and use major routes as they are more likely to have been gritted than secondary roads,” it said.

“Remember that stopping distances are 10 times longer in ice and snow.”

Heavy rain

Wednesday night will be blustery, with further heavy rain at times, particularly in the midlands, south and east.

The west and northwest will remain drier, with some frost overnight amid low temperatures of 0-4 degrees Celsius.

Thursday will be cold and cloudy in places during the morning, with showers in the east and south.

Conditions will become brighter in the afternoon, with scattered showers. Temperatures of 8-10 degrees are expected.

Frost is due in many areas overnight on Thursday. Heading into Friday and the weekend, more settled, milder weather will develop.

Saturday and Sunday will be mostly dry, with a mix of cloud and bright spells.

Temperatures will be 11-14 degrees during the afternoons. Cooler conditions are expected on the east and south coasts.