INLAND COUNTIES of Munster and south Leinster are most at risk of snow as wintery weather makes a return, according to Met Éireann.
Showers of sleet and snow were due to move in from the southwest overnight, spreading through Leinster this morning. However Connacht and Ulster are expected to escape the snow and remain dry.
Coastal counties are more likely to be affected by sleet than snow but inland areas could see substantial accumulations of about five centimetres of snow.
“There is a high risk of snow falling inland, and a high likelihood that any snow that does fall will lie on the ground in inland counties,” Met Éireann forecaster Vincent O’Shea said.
The snow is expected to clear eastwards tonight, to be replaced by drier weather. However, it will remain extremely cold with temperatures dropping to -8, Mr O’Shea said. “Saturday morning could bring serious problems on the roads. Even where there has just been sleet or rain, it’s likely to freeze hard.”
Temperatures are likely to remain low over the weekend, with daytime highs of just 2 to 5 degrees.
“However it should become milder again in the early days of next week, he said. “The start of the week should spell the end of the current cold spell.”
Overnight water restrictions are set to continue in Dublin this weekend in preparation for the return of schools and colleges on Monday morning. Dublin City Council will this morning review the state of water supplies at the county reservoirs. However, a spokesman said it was “unlikely some form of restriction won’t be needed over the weekend”.
Of the city’s 19 water systems,only one, the Sillogue Tower system, which serves Finglas and west Ballymun, was free from restrictions last night, due to difficulties associated with recharging that system once it has been shut down.
Demand for water in Dublin last Tuesday, when most businesses had reopened after Christmas, reached 538 million litres, just within the limits of production at the city’s water treatment facilities of 542 million litres.
A reduction on demand on Wednesday to 528 million litres allowed 16 million litres to be put into storage.
While demand was no longer exceeding the rate of production, the council is hoping to get its stocks of water close to 1,100 million litres by Monday to cope with the expected surge in demand when schools return.
“At the moment we’re at about the 900 million litre mark in storage. Ideally we’d like to be at 1,100, but we’re aiming to get above 1,000 million litres,” the spokesman said.
Council workers were continuing to repair about 10 broken water mains per day, but were seeing a reduction in the numbers of burst mains.
The council was closely watching the weather, with the very low temperatures predicted by Met Éireann for today and into the weekend, but the spokesman said, it was the “sudden dramatic rise” in temperatures which caused the breaks to the water mains after Christmas.
While burst pipes in buildings are caused by water freezing, breaks to mains pipes are caused by the ground moving around the pipes as it thaws. The council did not expect significant additional damage to be caused to pipes over the weekend.
Water supplies have continued to improve in the rest of the country. Night-time restrictions have been lifted entirely in Cork city, Kerry, Limerick city and county, Galway city, Leitrim, Mayo, and Donegal.
