THE RECENT spell of wintry weather is set to continue over the coming days with Met Éireann predicting continued snow showers and low temperatures around the country.
Motorists have been urged to listen to traffic updates and assess their journeys before leaving home today and gardaí advise people to drive only when it is absolutely necessary.
The warnings come after motorists awoke yesterday to dangerous driving conditions and impassable roads in some areas following heavy overnight snow showers.
AA Roadwatch said conditions were not as bad as feared on some major routes because large stretches of affected roads had been treated by local councils.
It said traffic was moving slowly, but few of the major traffic incidents reported were weather related.
Met Éireann said today would be very cold with some bright and dry spells. Further sleet and snow showers were predicted to develop later in the day. A severe weather warning remained in place last night with further accumulations of snow anticipated in eastern and southern areas this morning as heavy showers of sleet and snow were predicted overnight.
Forecaster Joan Blackburn said snow showers will become more scattered today but that another band of precipitation is moving in over the north of the country.
She said this band is expected to move southwards, which will result in further cold temperatures and bouts of sleet and snow through to the weekend.
“The cold weather and wintry theme is set to continue for a while yet,” she said. “Temperatures will remain cold, reaching no more than two or three degrees in some places, and they will hover around zero where the snow is not melting.”
Dublin airport was coping well yesterday, although a few flights were cancelled and others were running on average half-an-hour behind schedule.
The airport, which had to close its runway for a short period on Monday evening due to heavy snow, was running close to normal and for the most part passengers remained in good spirits.
According to the Dublin Airport Authority, the last time the airport had to deal with so much snow was in February 2001.
“Monday evening was difficult because we had a situation where the snow was falling as fast as we were clearing it, but the airport is coping with the adverse weather,” said Siobhán Moore from the authority.
They have a team of 30 people available on an emergency basis to deal with clearing snow or ice from the runways and the crew has been out every night this week ensuring that the landing strips remain clear.
“There’s been around 400 acres of pavement area that has to be cleared of snow and ice and anything up to 50 tonnes of snow can accumulate on the runway. People might see flurries of snow but when it is falling on a continuous basis then it builds up very quickly,” said Ms Moore.
Passengers who were facing delays were generally full of praise for the response of the authority and the airlines to the bad weather.
Joseph O’Connor from Luton, England, had been scheduled to fly home on Monday night until his flight was cancelled, with another flight not available until yesterday evening. Having decided to return to Carlow on Monday night he had also got caught in traffic and spent more than five hours on a coach. However, he remained in high spirits. “We were just unlucky as were a lot of other people but we are looking forward to getting home now,” he said.
Pádraig O’Sullivan from Maynooth, Co Kildare, had to stay the night in Glasgow on Monday following the cancellation of his flight and also faced delays. “Aer Lingus sent a text message to say the flight was cancelled on Monday so at least we were kept informed,” he said.
In the North, those travelling by train or expecting to fly between Belfast airports and Britain were badly hit by delays and cancellations.
Some flights from the George Best Belfast City Airport to Leeds-Bradford and to Southampton were subject to delays caused by the snowfalls there.
Delays were caused on services to Stansted and London City Airport as well as the main London airports at Heathrow and Gatwick with predicted “significant delays and cancellations”. Problems at Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen were also reported.