Sub-zero conditions forecast to last for further week

MOST OF the country faces another week of sub-zero temperatures, with conditions unlikely to improve before Friday at the earliest.

Met Éireann has forecast that the freezing temperatures of recent nights will continue, with ice replacing snow as the biggest hazard.

The agency’s head of forecasting Gerald Fleming said conditions could be compared to the big freeze of last winter and those of the winters of 1947/48, 1962/63 and 1978/79, but this was the earliest such a protracted cold spell had been experienced.

“It shows the exceptional conditions we are facing,” he said.

There will be an east-west split, with the eastern half of the country experiencing day-time highs of only three degrees and temperatures as low as -8 at night, although snow will not be as prevalent as recently.

It is expected that temperatures in the east will rise above freezing for only a couple of hours each day.

However, a thaw, which has already set in along the Atlantic seaboard, is expected to continue in the west, with temperatures staying above freezing for the week.

The midlands, northwest and southwest were the worst-affected areas yesterday, as snow showers continued to sweep across the country, although the situation improved in Dublin, where rain fell.

Limerick received its first significant snowfalls and there were reports of widespread black ice in the midlands.

Transport services operated to near full capacity yesterday and the State’s airports remained open, although there were delays to some flights.

National director of fire and emergency management Seán Hogan warned that driver fatigue was setting in among the 200 workers who have been gritting the roads, an operation which is being carried out around the clock.

Dublin City Council engineer Michael Phillips said they would continue to try to clear as many footpaths as possible over the weekend.

“We will have on the street just about everybody who can carry a shovel to try and clear as much of it as possible,” he said.

The National Roads Authority has 30,000 tonnes of salt left and has advised local authorities to mix the remaining salt with an equal measure of grit.

“That will allow us to extend the supply to see this through,” said the authority’s spokesman Seán O’Neill, who added that a delivery of fresh salt was expected within the next fortnight, bringing national stocks up to 50,000 tonnes again.

The business group Ibec estimates that a two-week freeze will cost the economy an estimated €920 million, based on a loss of retail sales of €130 million a week, loss to other service businesses of €200 million and a €130 million loss of production in manufacturing, although much of this will be recovered when the weather improves.

Speaking at the daily briefing by the National Emergency Response Committee, Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation official John Newhan said discussions were taking place with all the major representative business bodies in Ireland.

“They are not reporting, as of yet, any wide-scale difficulties. Disruption may not be long term in nature, it may be temporary,” he said.

The Department of Social Protection has extended the period for which those in receipt of the State pension, jobseeker’s payment, the one-parent family payment and child benefit can collect their money from local post offices.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen praised the actions of the emergency services, local authorities and health service staff over the past week.