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LAST UPDATE | 15 Dec 2022
MET ÉIREANN HAS issued another Status Orange warning for low temperatures and ice from 6pm today until noon tomorrow, with 16 mostly inland counties to be impacted.
Freezing fog, and severe frost and ice are forecast tonight for Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Meath, Offaly, Westmeath, Cavan, Monaghan, Clare, Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, Galway, Roscommon.
10 other counties remain under a Status Yellow low temperature and ice warning until noon tomorrow, although the UK Met Office has not put any warnings in place for Northern Ireland.
A lowest temperature of -10.8 degrees was recorded in Co Cavan last night and lows of -5 to -8 degrees are expected this evening.
The weekend is set to offer a break from the cold as milder weather is expected however, it will become cooler again from next Tuesday.
Today is set to be very cold, though sunny and mainly dry with a few wintry showers in the north and northwest.
Temperatures will remain below freezing in some parts of the midlands throughout the day, as temperatures will range between 0 and +3 degrees generally, with it being slightly warmer along the coasts.
Tomorrow will still be very cold but, but freezing fog will gradually clear. There will be isolated rain showers which will become heavier and more widespread across the western part of the country. Isolated thunderstorms and hail is also forecasted for the northwest coasts, which will transition to snow and sleet further inland.
The weather models in a better agreement that it will turn cooler again next week with temperatures dropping back from Tuesday. Still uncertainty beyond midweek but risk of cool Christmas increasing… pic.twitter.com/hOEj6Jcoxn
— Carlow Weather (@CarlowWeather) December 15, 2022
Temperatures will rang from 0 to +3 degrees during the afternoon, however Friday night will not be a bitterly cold as the weather we have been experiencing. It will go between -3 and +2 degrees generally.
Later in the night, outbreaks of rain and sleet will become more widespread with some turning to snow, especially over higher ground.
Saturday will see a gradual return to more moderate weather, as temperatures will rise to between 4 and 8 degrees in the south and 1 and 3 degrees in the northern half of the country.
Saturday night will coldest early on, with lows of -1 degrees in the north and +2 degrees in the south, but it will turn much milder in the south later in the night as a band of rain pushes up.
As it meets the cooler air over the northern half of the country it may fall as sleet or even snow over higher ground for a time before transitioning back to rain.
On Sunday it will become milder everywhere with showery outbreaks of rain on Sunday night while Met Éireann is forecasting that lowest temperatures will hold at a balmy 8 to 12 degrees.
On Monday, after a mild, damp and mostly cloudy start, cooler showery conditions will spread from the west along with sunny spells.
It then looks to get “gradually colder throughout next week.”
Alan O’ Reilly from Carlow Weather said that it looks like temperatures are set to drop again from Tuesday, and that there is still uncertainty beyond the midweek point but the risk of a “cool Christmas is increasing.”
With reporting by Jamie McCarron
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Having read the article it sounds like Aine is very well taken care of indeed and lucky to live in a country that funds a PA, her medical needs, an income and gives her a purpose built house. We bash our service providers but Mayo County and the taxpayer deserve some credit here.
i agree that it is good to be able to live in a small town like belmullet with MS, so well done to her for getting on with normal life. By the way, don’t the IASE or IWA have a bus available for getting around if you need to get to work?
Having access to a PA for 14 hours a week is not a lot to be honest. 2 hours a day…..
@Kerry Blake: That’s nothing.
She is one of the lucky ones. My adult son requires full time care. This week he gets 6 and a half hours outreach from his wonderful team. That’s over 160 hours that fall to me to provide his care. He gets 188 DA, which doesn’t nearly cover his expenses, free travel, and a medical card, which he fortunately rarely uses. Even so, I consider him lucky too. At least he has outreach, some don’t even have that. However, without financial assistance from family, I don’t know how we would cope. As for his future, his care is only assured as long as I live and am healthly enough to provide it myself. Chances are he will outlive me. I hope he will, yet I exist constantly in the dread of what will happen then.
Keep up the good fight girl…
Something as simple as a proper bus stop to access the bus is just a simple way to show the contempt the government has for its disabled!! Shame. I wonder will Minister McGrath sort out the one thing even?
How much longer do people with disabilities have to wait before our government get how difficult a life they have without enough state help, they seem to find money to waste on other useless projects e.g. exerting being one that springs to mind 50 million wasted
I’m sure the €6000 pay rise they gave themselves eases their minds
Disabled persons and their families are in for a land when their adult child moves to a nursing home as young as 60 or when the elderly parents die.
Nursing home residents under the Fair Deal are only allowed a meagre €6.34 a day to cover their personal extras while those with disabilities living in residential care settings are, rightly, allowed keep a guaranteed minimum pocket money of at least €118 a week or €16.85 a day.
This small sum needs to cover all the sundries not supplied by the nursing home. Taxis to medical appointments and an escort nurse can result in bills of €70 for each visit. Shampoo, shower gel, toothpaste, tissues, non- prescription medicines, own bottles of soft drinks, sweets or treats are essential extras. Plus new clothes and shoes replacements or repair. And mobile phone bills and radio replacement or repair. Not to mention maybe a daily newspaper or magazine of choice, and even small birthday or Christmas presents for friends or carers if residents wish to give a small token of thanks. Many attend a day centre, costing around €7 a day with lunch – and well worth it for vital socialisation- but added to this cost is a taxi each way unless volunteer drivers and relatives can provide lifts weekly. Nursing homes charge for their own activities programme and sadly this too is out of the reach of the resident with Fair Deal pocket money.
have your say