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Updated at 8.05am
THERE ARE ICY and frosty conditions on the roads this morning after temperatures dipped as low as minus eight degrees in some areas, following snow at the weekend.
The worst affected counties are Roscommon, Sligo, Donegal, Cavan and the eastern half of Galway, AA Roadwatch is reporting this morning.
An ‘orange alert’ weather warning for severe frost, ice and lying snow remains in place until at least 10am this morning – with east Connacht, Leinster and Ulster the coldest areas.
Here’s the advice from AA Roadwatch this morning:
If you’re driving in such conditions, slow down, make sure your dipped headlights are on and remember it can take up to ten times longer to stop your vehicle so stay plenty of space from the vehicle in front.
Brian Farrell of the Road Safety Authority said motorist in areas affected by snow and ice should check local conditions before heading out.
“It will take everyone longer to get where they’re going this morning,” he cautioned, speaking to Morning Ireland.
Drivers should clear their car of snow before leaving their driveway so it doesn’t fall off in transit, he said. It was safest to stick to national and regional roads, which will have been gritted, Farrell said.
Irish Rail said all trains were running this morning – but that there were delays on the 5.35 Longford to Dublin service, causing some knock-on delays to Maynooth services.
Bus Éireann said the majority of its services were unaffected by weather conditions and operating to schedule, with the following exceptions:
Dublin Bus said a full service was operating today on all routes, with one exception:
The only curtailment is to route 44b which is operating to the Blue Church and not serving Glencullen due to icy roads
A number of Dublin to London flights have been cancelled this morning, due to the adverse weather in the UK capital.
Five flights to London Heathrow have been cancelled so far, but a number were also heavily delayed or cancelled yesterday.
Passengers are being urged to check with their airline on the status of their flight before going to the airport.
A number of flights from Cork to Birmingham and London were also cancelled yesterday, and two flights to London Heathrow have been cancelled today.
Similarly, after a number of cancellations from Knock Airport yesterday, flights this morning are due to leave as scheduled.
The UK, meanwhile, faced the heaviest snowfall in four years yesterday, over 300 flights were cancelled at Germany’s busiest airport and a ferry ran aground in the French port of Calais as the continent reeled from the extreme weather conditions.
In Britain, Birmingham airport, serving the country’s second biggest city, suspended flights for all of Sunday morning, as staff worked to clear the runway in heavy snow.
The airport typically handles around 30,000 passengers and 200 flights a day in December. It diverted 11 flights elsewhere and expected to cancel more than that, a spokeswoman said.
London’s Luton Airport closed its runway for two hours before reopening around 11.30am yesterday morning to departing aircraft, according to a spokesman.
Police forces in worst-hit Wales and central England urged motorists not to travel unless “absolutely necessary” as they dealt with surging calls.
A spokesman for the Highways England agency said there had been road incidents “all over the place”.
In Germany, some 330 flights were cancelled by 4pm Irish time yesterday after heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures struck the region around Frankfurt, a spokesman for airport operator Fraport told AFP.
The airport – Germany’s largest air hub and the home base for major carrier Lufthansa – had been scheduled to handle a total of 1,260 flights over the day.
After working through the evening and into the night, the runways were cleared of snow and flights resumed this morning, albeit with a number still cancelled.
Closer to home, we’re unsurprisingly set for another very cold day.
Temperatures are set to limp above freezing as the day goes on, reaching a high of around 4 degrees, before dropping to -3 again overnight.
Met Éireann forecasts wintry showers across Connacht, Ulster and west Munster but it’ll be mainly dry elsewhere.
Widespread frost will return overnight, with temperatures set to go below freezing.
Tomorrow will be slightly warmer, with temperatures ranging between 5 and 8 degrees.
We can also expect to wake up to severe frost every day this week.
- With reporting from Daragh Brophy, AFP
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There is rapid testing on arrival in many European countries, I wonder why it’s not available here? There must be a political reason why the government isn’t even talking about its adoption. Any ideas?
@Giovanni Giusti: lack of willingness to spend the money. Lack of sufficient tests levels as it is. Lack of imagination when it comes to other testing methods.
@Aidan O’ Neill: Our public health experts don’t like antigen testing according to the Taoiseach
It will take time? Why is that? Why does everything have to take an eternity and why should we be dependent on the U.K. ‘s acceptance ? I couldn’t care less what the U.K. do or not.
@Isabel Oliveira: you should Isabel. They generate massive income into this country through trade, tourism and diaspora travel. You don’t have to like but you need to understand the economics.
@Gary Sheahan: the uk will shortly be outside the EU, we will not. We need to adopt this system regardless of their stance. Our hospitality sector depends significantly on US visitors as well. They won’t be party to any EU system, so why should the UK be treated any different. Ryan needs to get the finger out and align us to EU system ASAP.
@Hugh Corcoran: The UK left the EU in January.
@Hugh Corcoran: our open border with the UK could force countries to treat us as one block so we would be on the red list everywhere!
@Isabel Oliveira: could it be that if the UK remain outside the system yet we still want to facilitate travel there, the Irish rating would not be allowable under EU system as UK travel should affect our rating due to UK potential rating?
It changes so often I wouldn’t be booking anything
Get it done NOW – time is not on our side – ACTION
They can still implement the first half (i.e. using the criteria for red and amber countries) from next week onwards while waiting to get testing in place.
@Dr Pablo Rojas Coppari: they won’t do that for one simple reason. The UK would be admitted. Other politics in place that are bordering on xenophobic
The bicycle man won’t accept it, he just doesn’t want people flying or traveling by car.
You know what would rid us of this virus? If every single one of us took some personal responsibility and just limited their contacts to 3 or 4 people outside of their own household for 4 weeks. It would be almost gone or at least down to extremely low levels of infection. Business and livelihoods would be saved, but oh no, people are far to fhckin selfish for that to happen.
I like the idea of rapid testing but of course what false positives would come through…which could block business or personal travel plans and no refunds would be available. I am glad I am not the one having to make these decisions!
@Seeking Truth: fast testing means a lot fewer cycles, so false positives are less likely. It’s irrelevant for us anyway as this government seems determined to keep us locked up and locked in
Airlines need to put in place a refund package for those who might test positive a few hours before their flights. If the don’t government must force them to by law.
@M Bowe: isn’t that what travel insurance is for?
@Kieran Frost: not covered under current policies
What’s the point in having orange?
@Bramer: it gives you an indication that countries may turn red. Which has implications for medium-term travel planning.
My job still wants me to take two weeks off to isolate if I go abroad. So none of these means anything.
If we are going to have another lockdown it should be done across europe at the same time. Then travel within Europe should be allowed. It could break the circuit on the continent also and maybe save the aviation industry
have your say