THE EAST coast is to get a taste of Siberia over the next few days, Met Éireann has warned, following a wet weekend which caused flooding in several counties.
St Brigid’s Day yesterday, traditionally recognised as the first day of spring, did not live up its billing. Instead it brought the beginning of a cold snap likely to last until the end of the week.
The freezing weather follows the bouts of heavy rain which caused flooding at the weekend in Cork, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Carlow, Cavan, Offaly and Westmeath.
The worst affected town was Clonmel, where a number of residents had to be evacuated from their homes on Saturday night.
A weather system channelling freezing air from eastern Asia began moving toward the country last night and with it, the prospect of snow and hail along the coast from Wexford right up to north eastern counties today and tomorrow.
Temperatures are not expected to rise above 4 degrees for the week and forecasters have warned of a bitterly cold wind and said “significant accumulations of snow” are likely in some areas. At night, temperatures are expected to drop to -3 degrees, causing sharp frost in areas without cloud cover.
So far, the winter, which does not officially end until March 1st according to Met Éireann, has been colder than normal, with temperatures up to one degree lower than average. Meteorologist Emily Gleeson said apart from a few odd mild days, it has been cold since the end of October.
“And we are in for a cold week,” she warned.
She said the very cold air mass moving over the country would mean snow was unlikely to be confined to high ground and would probably reach sea level. The eastern areas of the country were most likely to feel the brunt of the cold weather, she said, with brighter weather over west Ulster, Connacht, and much of Munster initially, though wintery showers could move further inland.
“It is a hard one to call; the difference between snow, sleet and rain can be less than .1 of a degree,” she said.
The wind is expected to turn northerly toward the later half of the week, with wintry showers confined to northern parts of the country.
Flood waters continued to recede yesterday after heavy rain in many parts of the country. Met Éireann’s station at Cork Airport experienced 74mm of rain at the weekend, Ms Gleeson said, while Ballyhaise in Cavan had 55mm.
There is no Met station to measure rainfall in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, where the river Suir burst its banks on Friday night after extremely heavy showers.
Residents of a nursing home in Nenagh had to be evacuated on Saturday after the nearby Nenagh river burst its banks.
Assessment of the flood damage at Rivervale nursing home on the Old Birr Road was carried out yesterday and clean-up work at the nursing home is expected to take place this week prior to the return of patients to the home.
Heavy rain also caused problems in parts of Cork, Kilkenny, Carlow, Westmeath, Offaly and Cavan. Rally Ireland organisers were forced to cancel two scheduled stages of the race around Fardross and Murley, in Co Fermanagh at the weekend.