Weather: Orange warning issued with temperatures of -5 degrees expected

Ireland’s prolonged freeze will see temperatures potentially dip below five degrees on Wednesday as Met Éireann released a new weather alert.

A status orange warning – the second most severe – has been issued for Wednesday night, promising extremely low temperatures and ice.

From 6pm on Wednesday until noon Thursday the majority of the country will be affected, with only counties in the east and northwest spared the worst of the conditions.

A status yellow low temperature and ice warning remains in place for the entire country until 12pm on Friday, with severe frost, snow and freezing fog forecast.

Temperatures plunged again on Tuesday, reaching as low as minus 6.7 degrees at 8am in Co Sligo. At 6pm, they were sub-zero temperatures in nine of 25 Met Éireann weather stations, including minus 5 at Mt Dillon in Co Roscommon and minus 4 at Ballyhaise, Co Cavan.

“The nights are so long at this stage, they’re almost as long as they’re going to be, so even at eight or nine o’clock in the morning, it takes a while for the solar heating to have an effect on the air temperatures,” explained Met Éireann forecaster Andrew Doran-Sherlock of the lingering cold.

With cloud cover and rain in the south, it was a mixed bag around the country on Tuesday, albeit at the lower end of temperatures. During the afternoon Roche’s Point in Cork did not fall below three degrees, but Ballyhaise in Cavan was at minus 2.8 by 4pm.

“The cold spell is continuing right through the working week,” said Mr Doran-Sherlock. “Daytime temperatures are staying low single figures at best and very cold nights. So there is the status orange temperature warning out for most counties tomorrow.”

That could mean further disruption around the country, particularly to driving conditions even though many of the roads are well gritted.

Treacherous conditions on footpaths; travel and potential supply disruption; burst water pipes and damage to engines; increased risk to the vulnerable; animal welfare issues and slack winds over land leading to reduced power generation are among the multitudes of weather-related fallout.

This week has already seen the cancellation of school buses in the worst-hit parts of the road network and some school closures.

On Tuesday evening, a spokesman for the Department of Education said those decisions were still being taken at a local level, dependent entirely on local conditions. Information on dealing with severe weather through the gov.ie/winterready service has been provided to all schools.

“Any decision to close is taken in the interest of child safety, having assessed the local risks and having consulted, as appropriate, with school transport operators,” the spokesman said.

The National Emergency Coordination Group (NECG) met again on Tuesday morning to assess the ongoing cold weather while Irish Water urged the public to conserve water, reduce excessive use and report leaks.

Seventy-three flights in and out of Dublin Airport were cancelled on Monday, mainly due to problems at London airports. Dublin Airport was open and operational through Tuesday but weather disruption in the UK continued to lead to cancellations.

The weekend, however, could deliver a long awaited thaw. “There is a change on the way,” said Mr Doran-Sherlock. “Later on Saturday we’ll start to see some milder air coming in from the southwest.

“There will be quite a difference then on the max temperatures when we get to Sunday. They could be into double figures potentially.”

It will be a welcome reprieve from when temperatures dipped below minus 5 degrees in many areas on Monday evening.

The coldest temperature on the island was recorded at minus 9 degrees in Katesbridge, Co Down. In the Republic, it was in Athenry, Co Galway, where it hit minus 7.2.

Met Éireann senior forecaster Gerry Murphy told RTÉ that yesterday “in Ballyhaise in Co Cavan the temperature didn’t rise above minus 3.1 degrees across the day and that was the coldest day time temperature since 2010.”