Cold Spell Discussion (21/12/09) (Scattered snow showers today)

Rougies

billy the squid wrote: »

-4 in Mullingar as of the last hourly report.

-6 in Longford :cool:

http://www.irelandsweather.com/

Tactical

Hi Gang,

How are you all doing this evening?

Very, very cold here in West Limerick.

Today saw about 30 mins of decent snowfall, followed by a small thaw.

This is where the problems begin. The snow on the roads turned slightly slushy and became somewhat compacted. Then, not surprisingly, it started to freeze and became even more compacted by traffic. So there is now the situation where the road is literally a sheet of ice. No kidding.

I've watched cars leaving there drives onto the road and as they are comming downhill they are failing to complete the manuver and instead are just slipping and comming to a stop at the edge of the opposite side of the road.

Not one bit looking forward to making the journey to a main road in the morning but I have enjoyed the bit of snow we did get.

j1979p

munsterlegend wrote: »

does fog affect the frost?

Well although the formatiom of fog is a sign that the air is indeed cold, fog will limit the further cooling of the air as it retains the heat from the earths surface.

If you want real cold, you want a clear sky all night with little or no wind.

munsterlegend

j1979p wrote: »

Well although the formatiom of fog is a sign that the air is indeed cold, fog will limit the further cooling of the air as it retains the heat from the earths surface.

If you want real cold, you want a clear sky all night with little or no wind.

thanks for that. very foggy here and definately roads are not as bad. i miss john1994 and his questions re snow in limerick.

squonk

Freezing fog here and the last time I looked at the temp it was -0.4 and might have dropped since. Nasty out there. Very slippy.

Alicat

munsterlegend wrote: »

i miss john1994 and his questions re snow in limerick.

His six million questions??

TomTom

Should have bought one of those outdoor termometers-thingamagiggy. I wish I knew how cold it was outside for some reason, I know its lower than -2 anyway.

Deep Easterly

j1979p wrote: »

Well although the formatiom of fog is a sign that the air is indeed cold, fog will limit the further cooling of the air as it retains the heat from the earths surface.

If you want real cold, you want a clear sky all night with little or no wind.

Thanks for that, I have always wondered why fog tends to stagnate a fall in temps by night. Just one further question. Isn't the earth's surface usually colder than the air above though?

masteroftherealm

Severe hail outside Belmullet at the moment, cant hear person beside me taking. 5-6mm in diameter hailstones. Madness I tell ya madness.

leahyl

munsterlegend wrote: »

thanks for that. very foggy here and definately roads are not as bad. i miss john1994 and his questions re snow in limerick.

So i guess the frost might not be as bad tomorrow morning in Cork eh Munsterlegend?:) (because of fog i mean)

j1979p

munsterlegend wrote: »

i miss john1994 and his questions re snow in limerick.

Please don't say I reminded you of John1994 :mad::D

kleefarr

Kilkenny City outskirts...

Temperature: -3.0 °C
Dew Point: -3.3 °C

Fog lifting, no sign of snow.

j1979p

leahyl wrote: »

So i guess the frost might not be as bad tomorrow morning in Cork eh Munsterlegend?:) (because of fog i mean)

Not necessarily either. It doesn't take that low a temp for frost to occur. If the winds stay light, the temp will still drop but just at a much slower rate than would occur under clear skys.

Pretty simple really, the only way it will heat up is if heat is added. How does that happen? Well, the sun or a wind bringing warm air from say the sea.

That's why we want light or no winds

Sorry, unlike almost all of the snow freaks on ths board, I am a temperature freak and would really love to see a -20 record set in Ireland

Deep Easterly

munsterlegend wrote: »

thanks for that. very foggy here and definately roads are not as bad. i miss john1994 and his questions re snow in limerick.

Rougies hilariously captured the pure essence of john1994 last night:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=63592054&postcount=1059

Classic! :pac:

Tactical

leahyl wrote: »

God i hope it'll be ok for you Ricky91t - a colleague of mine had to go to shannon this morning to collect relatives and it took her 4 HOURS to get back to Cork!:eek:

Bluddy hell:eek:

I'm heading for Cork in the morning, the journey should normally take about 1 hour 30 mins for me so it'll be interesting to see how long it'll take me in the morning. I'll be on the road very early well before rush hour traffic and I'm seriously thinking I need to leave even earlier but I can't imagine the main roads being too mad

I'll bring down a bag of snow for you Leahyl, good to see you back on the radar again as it was fun reading your posts. Your enthuasism rubbed off on everyone.:)

Rougies

Tactical wrote: »

I've watched cars leaving there drives onto the road and as they are comming downhill they are failing to complete the manuver and instead are just slipping and comming to a stop at the edge of the opposite side of the road.

Fun to watch though eh!

Reminds me of this ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6_ghixVN78

Don't get me wrong now, I know driving in these conditions is very dangerous and I hope everyone stays safe. But a bit of harmless ice rink bumper cars never hurt anyone!

leahyl

Tactical wrote: »

Bluddy hell:eek:

I'm heading for Cork in the morning, the journey should normally take about 1 hour 30 mins for me so it'll be interesting to see how long it'll take me in the morning. I'll be on the road very early well before rush hour traffic and I'm seriously thinking I need to leave even earlier but I can't imagine the main roads being too mad

I'll bring down a bag of snow for you Leahyl, good to see you back on the radar again as it was fun reading your posts. Your enthuasism rubbed off on everyone.:)

Ya i would say make sure you leave plenty of time - i think my colleague left shannon at about 9 and got to Cork at 1!

Ah thanks but i think the enthusiasm was already well and truly there with all the weather buffs on here:)

Tactical

Deep Easterly wrote: »

Rougies hilariously captured the pure essence of john1994 last night:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=63592054&postcount=1059

Classic! :pac:

I thought it was very funny when John1994 stated the sky ws getting very dark in Limerick and someone replied that as it was about 5.30pm that was the reason why :D:D

Had a good giggle at that

G-Money

I have to drive home to the north at some stage this week. I *think the main roads are grand but I'm from a small rural town and where the house is, is on a hilly area. The road up to where I'm from never gets salted by the council and there's a main road at the bottom so you can imagine the fun of driving down it not knowing if the car will stop when it reaches the bottom. My folks have phoned the council to get them to leave some salt out so we can grit the road ourselves but they haven't left any out yet.

It's a bit annoying as I've a doctors appointment on Thursday morning at 9am and I don't really want to cancel it. The surgery is about a mile from where I live so it's either drive down that dodgy road (if I even get up it) or have to walk in the slippery cold conditions.

I hate the snow.

leahyl

Rougies wrote: »

Fun to watch though eh!

Reminds me of this ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6_ghixVN78

Don't get me wrong now, I know driving in these conditions is very dangerous and I hope everyone stays safe. But a bit of harmless ice rink bumper cars never hurt anyone!

OMG that is ridiculous seriously - the people in those cars must have a screw loose!:eek:

kleefarr

I wonder what it's going to be like tomorrow morning. Will it be worth the trip to school for the kids, just for three and a half hours I ask myself.

We'll just have to wait and see I suppose. :rolleyes:

fintonie

kleefarr wrote: »

I wonder what it's going to be like tomorrow morning. Will it be worth the trip to school for the kids, just for three and a half hours I ask myself.

We'll just have to wait and see I suppose. :rolleyes:

now woodin it be a great treat for them if they didnt have to, plus the time of year brings a bit more of fun into it

ooo sorry and its still -7 here.

Villain

Be a great fight if this came off

edit and New Year has a cold start:

Tactical

Rougies wrote: »

Fun to watch though eh!

Reminds me of this ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6_ghixVN78

Don't get me wrong now, I know driving in these conditions is very dangerous and I hope everyone stays safe. But a bit of harmless ice rink bumper cars never hurt anyone!

Definately fun to watch especially as the drivers also knew it was going to happen. No traction what so ever and steering totally useless.

I know too well the serious side of the conditions as my job involves a serious amount of driving whatever the conditions.

I can tell you that while I've been delighted with the cold spell the icy roads are probably the one thing I can say with hand on heart that actually scare me the most.

Something tells me we won't see 1,000 posts tonight

leahyl

Villain wrote: »

Be a great fight if this came off

edit and New Year has a cold start:

Can you explain what this means Villain for the non weather experts?!:)

Harps

Lightning yet again in Donegal..lights just gone out. Thankfully Ive got my laptop to keep me going

Villain

lol ah FI is just too cruel sometimes:

fintonie

the problem is young people they just dont know how it can go wrong so quick ( I speak from experience got lucky a few times till I realised to stay in) still -7

Villain

leahyl wrote: »

Can you explain what this means Villain for the non weather experts?!:)

The first charts shows a mild system approach from the south with the cold air to the North and Ireland caught in the middle. The sceond charts shows a re-run of this week on New years day

irish1967

I think a Limerick would be apt...

There was a young chap from Limerick
Who started to act like a pr**k
All he wanted to know
Was is it gonna snow
But a mouse click from a mod did the trick