Cold spell goes on but end to snow in sight

FREEZING TEMPERATURES will continue to affect many parts of the country up to Christmas Day but snow showers are forecast to become less frequent, particularly in the Dublin area.

Met Éireann said the weather would be considerably drier over the coming days, which forecaster Gerald Fleming said should make it far easier to keep roads and runways open once they are treated.

“For the next two or three days the weather news is very good,” he said. “It’s going to be dry but staying very cold indeed.”

Speaking at a meeting of the Government’s Severe Weather Co-ordination Committee, Mr Fleming said light snow showers would drift over the east coast and this could bring further flurries but nothing like the heavy snowfall that occurred in previous days.

However, Mr Fleming said freezing fog would pose problems for motorists, in the midlands region especially, as it would remain “bitterly cold” in much of the country until Christmas Day.

Seán O’Neill of the National Roads Authority told the meeting he was more positivie about the amount of salt available to it to treat roads following a delivery of 3,000 tonnes ahead of schedule to Dublin Port on Tuesday night.

Mr O’Neill said further shipments of salt were scheduled to arrive at Cork last night, to Dublin today and tomorrow, and to Belfast over the weekend.

These deliveries would mean the amount of salt used daily to treat motorways and primary routes could be increased by 50 per cent to 3,000 tonnes. Stockpiles would rise to 23,000 tonnes by St Stephen’s Day and 35,000 tonnes by the new year.

Joe Crockett of the County and City Managers Association said he expected a gradual ramping up of the salt supplies provided to local authorities over the next few days.

This would mean more use of salt on primary routes, in county towns and important regional roads, but there could never be enough salt to treat every road.

Siobhán Moore of Dublin Airport Authority said the airport had experienced some luck when snow stopped earlier than expected on Tuesday night and it was able to reopen ahead of schedule.

There were 600 acres to clear at the airport and for every inch of snow some 15,000 tonnes needed to be removed from the site.

Ms Moore said many of those waiting for flights were stressed and emotional but extra staff had been put on duty to ensure as much information as possible could be provided.

A spokeswoman for European Union transport commissioner Siim Kallas said on Tuesday that airports in western Europe needed to get serious about planning for severe weather events.

“We have seen in recent years that snow in western Europe is not such an exceptional circumstance and better preparedness in line with what is done in northern Europe is not at this stage an optional extra,” she said.

Ms Moore said there was little airports could do. “In relation to that quip from the EU, it doesn’t matter what equipment you have. With the best will in the world, if you have got blizzard-like conditions it makes no odds – you cannot fly an aircraft into and out of the airport,” she added.

She insisted the decision to close the airport was not taken lightly and said Dublin had 45 pieces of equipment such as snow ploughs and blowers.

She paid tribute to local potato growers, who spray the runways, for their work in getting the runways ready.

Mr Fleming said the nature of the recent weather was almost unprecedented.

A temperature of minus 16.9 degrees was recorded at Straide, Co Mayo, last night and a daily maximum of minus 9.4 degrees was recorded at Ballyhayes, Co Cavan, on Tuesday.

He said there had been five consecutive days of sub-zero temperatures and the trend was likely to continue for three or four days.