Christmas Eve Freeze (Wintry showers in east, temps below -10c tonight)

Deep Easterly

EV on the tv at the moment

"a white xmas for some tomorrow"

Deep Easterly

She told kids to be in bed by 9 tonight as Santa does not have far to come from the north pole! Class!!!

Graces7

If he tries to get down the chimney here tonight, he will get roasted..

Or the dogs will eat him

Deep Easterly wrote: »

She told kids to be in bed by 9 tonight as Santa does not have far to come from the north pole! Class!!!

Pangea

Record low temperatures as Christmas rush reaches peak


Tens of thousands of people will take to the roads today as the Christmas season gets underway.

However, with temperatures hitting as low as minus 10 degrees in places overnight, drivers are being warned to take extreme care. Record lows have been reported in Donegal and across the region, with temperatures of Minus 11 celcius between Derry and Dungiven and unconfirmed reports of Minus 12.5 degrees between Omagh and Ballygawley.

Icy conditions and freezing fog are causing problems around the country, and the CEO of the Road Safety Authority Noel Brett is urging anyone travelling today to drastically reduce speed, stay well back from the vehicle in front, and allow plenty of extra time for the journey.

http://www.highlandradio.com/2009/12/24/record-low-temperatures-as-christmas-rush-reasches-peak/

My estate looks lovely and frosty. The roads are all snow white. its foggy too. Lovely.

happy Christmas everyone.

owenc

another -10c night tonight as temps are -8.5c here currently hopefully it wont rain tomorrow is it expected to rain at temps this low?

Neddyusa

How much of a thaw do people think we will have between tomorrow and St Stephans day?

The frost has gotten unbelievably deep down into the ground here in Roscommon. Minus 9C the past two nights and not above zero since Monday. Ice 6 inches thick on top of floods in fields here - I could drive the tractor across them without it cracking!.

I've been half the day trying to thaw ice and fix burst water pipes in cattle sheds. There'll be leaks everywhere once the thaw sets in, but the ground is so hard right now i'd imagine it will take a couple of days >6C to thaw it?..

skelliser

-4c here in galway city now

ninebeanrows

On the balmy coast here in Dublin theres no sign of frost and we've had a few light rain showers, not wintry at all, apart from the cold that is!

Elmo5

Just saw the sky news long range forecast. For tomorrow they are saying rain, sleet and snow across Ireland, snow where the cold air meets warm air (middle-ish of country).....where this happens... accumulations of 4-7cm likely

owenc

Neddyusa wrote: »

How much of a thaw do people think we will have between tomorrow and St Stephans day?

The frost has gotten unbelievably deep down into the ground here in Roscommon. Minus 9C the past two nights and not above zero since Monday. Ice 6 inches thick on top of floods in fields here - I could drive the tractor across them without it cracking!.

I've been half the day trying to thaw ice and fix burst water pipes in cattle sheds. There'll be leaks everywhere once the thaw sets in, but the ground is so hard right now i'd imagine it will take a couple of days >6C to thaw it?..

yes im worried itll rain tomorrow and we will get really high temps!:mad:

nacho libre

owenc wrote: »

yes im worried itll rain tomorrow and we will get really high temps!:mad:

whatever about the rest of us down here you'll see snow tomorrow and it should stick for a while!! it'll probably turn back to rain though eventually.

Weathercheck

Weathercheck wrote: »

On the balmy coast here in Dublin theres no sign of frost and we've had a few light rain showers, not wintry at all, apart from the cold that is!

That balmy ness is kinda going at last down here [for how long I dont know]
The breeze is there but it's swung to the north sucking in some nice Wicklow mountain dewpoint.
Rain is certain for here though tomorrow.
Maybe 20 minutes of wet snow.

Mobhi1

Taking longer to drop to freezing tonight than previous nights; 0.3C now. Reached 2.7C here today but most of the footpaths etc. stayed white all day.

jenzz

Deep Easterly wrote: »

She told kids to be in bed by 9 tonight as Santa does not have far to come from the north pole! Class!!!

Mine volunteered the leabas at 10 past 7:eek::eek::eek:

Now down to business - Temp 2.6 DP .2 - Everything starting to glisten

thomasj

Out here in clonsilla its been like an ice rink the last three days the paths are lethal and it feels about -4 at the moment not sure what it is

M.T. Cranium

Would say there is a risk of freezing rain developing in some parts of west-central Ireland around 0600-0900h with the best chance for snow being found in Ulster ahead of that band of freezing rain. Hopefully it will come more as a sleety snizzle because pure freezing rain is very dangerous on the roads especially in a country not used to seeing it that often.

The conditions for freezing rain are met when a very shallow layer of cold air remains near the surface while 3-6 C air has moved in aloft and is dropping rain through the freezing layer. It does not have time to congeal into sleet or ice pellets so it hits the ground as rain and freezes on contact.

If this does hit, it will thaw itself fairly quickly as temperatures tomorrow are going to keep rising slowly even into the overnight hours.

I would also be concerned about some locally thick freezing fog more towards east-central Ireland ahead of this warm front.

Not the ideal weather for Christmas travel, although you do get cold and some snow as a bonus.

Sierra Oscar

Just back from Shannon Airport, car reported -5 C on the drive home most of the way.

Very bad fog all across the Clare/Limerick City/North Tipp border area.

owenc

temps here are -8.7c again already expecting another -10c night at least

Pangea

Its safe to say this is a christmas we wont forget in a hurry, a nice white christmas here anyways , regardless if it snows or not tomorrow.
Happy Christmas to everyone on Boards.ie!

TomTom

I don't know what to make of weather reports anymore. The snow that fell here 4 days ago is still here in most places as there has been no real thaw. I had to beat the timber for the fire apart as its all properly frozen together. I had to pour warm water over the gas pipes and fittings for the hob this morning to get it to flow and there is a bucket of water frozen solid all the way down outside yet met had it as been between 1 and 4 today, bollox to that. I want my snow....

wild handlin

It was -8.6 here this morning at it's peak here in Enniskillen. Frost never cleared all day, and snow still hasn't melted!!
Currently -6.4 and dropping!!
Hope everyone here has a great Christmas and keep safe on the roads!!

Sierra Oscar

-6 here at the moment, with a nasty freezing fog!

TomTom

Twas the night before Christmas and all though the house, nothing was stirring except for the mouse.

Tapping on keyboards and checking the net to see if Christmas would be white or simply just wet.

Predictions abound and reports of odd snow, with Graces 7 and owenc seeing some show.

Many were jealous some were relieved with reports of temperatures that were hard to believe.

The people flocked in hoping for news with many strangers sharing their views.

Is it snowing in Limerick john_1994 would ask, asking so many times he was taken to task.

Weather charts and maps scattered about, putting met.ie's reporting in doubt.

It's Christmas eve night and I have no snow but hopefully tomorrow the clouds will let go.

WolfeIRE, Black Briar, Weathercheck to name a few, make up the great boards.ie weather crew.



Thanks lads and ladies, Happy Christmas to ye all.

Mothman

Neddyusa wrote: »

How much of a thaw do people think we will have between tomorrow and St Stephans day?

The frost has gotten unbelievably deep down into the ground here in Roscommon. Minus 9C the past two nights and not above zero since Monday. Ice 6 inches thick on top of floods in fields here - I could drive the tractor across them without it cracking!.

I've been half the day trying to thaw ice and fix burst water pipes in cattle sheds. There'll be leaks everywhere once the thaw sets in, but the ground is so hard right now i'd imagine it will take a couple of days >6C to thaw it?..

I've only the previous 30hours to judge by, but I think potentially days for the ground to thaw.
My experience, 4 sub zero nights, but not very cold, air min down to -3C, grass min down to -9C. The lowest 5cm soil temp I recorded was +0.1C. I ended up with frozen ground, ice about 3cm thick. I then had temp up to 6C, but for 24hrs above 4C, a little drizzle as well totaling 1mm. Black ice remained on my drive for 24hrs after the temp rose to 4C. The rain that fell froze on the ground.

You had much much colder weather. 5cm temperature is -4.2C, hell even 30cm down is sub zero
http://www.nratraffic.ie/weather.asp?Index=IR030
That is an awful lot of cold though how much depends on the snow cover, because the snow acts as a blanket keeping the cold out. I don't know how representative the Elphin soil temperatures are of the surrounding countryside. Maybe much of this cold will head downwards to cool the earth much lower, but I think it'll also keep the upper parts frozen for a while. What will thaw the ground fairly quickly is warm rain. There isn't much of that coming! But even rain at 5C contains a lot of heat compared to air at 5C, but I think it would take a lot of rain to raise temps up and I don't see that amount coming..

So IMO I think the ground, particularly shaded from the sun will remain frozen throughout the next couple days and maybe beyond.

I can't imagine how difficult the ground will be when it thawing. I had little puddles in the poached ground and as it thawed, it just got muckier and muckier. Its a mess and I've hardly had any precipitation compared to all the frost and snow up your way.

*eadaoin

here in tipp (near thurles) our car thermometer was just showing -4 degrees, but feels a lot colder (we've had freezing fog on and off all day, we live quite near the Suir river, it's sparkling in the air, like snow almost).

our back door just froze closed it's that cold! the folks couldn't get back in after coming home from christmas eve mass

Mothman

NRA Charlsetown has made rapid progress in cooling and was -9.6C at 9pm
10pm obs soon in.
I'll repeat that the NRA temps are non standard exposure so cannot be compared directly with Met office stations, but they still measure the conditions where they are located accurately, so it can be argued that they are every bit as appropiate at the Met office stations.

BTW if anyone else wants to keep an eye on the NRA soil temps
http://www.nratraffic.ie/weather/default.asp?regionid=0
and click icon to left of station name for details.

Euro_Kraut

Mothman wrote: »

NRA Charlsetown has made rapid progress in cooling and was -9.6C at 9pm
10pm obs soon in.
I'll repeat that the NRA temps are non standard exposure so cannot be compared directly with Met office stations, but they still measure the conditions where they are located accurately, so it can be argued that they are every bit as appropiate at the Met office stations.

BTW if anyone else wants to keep an eye on the NRA soil temps
http://www.nratraffic.ie/weather/default.asp?regionid=0
and click icon to left of station name for details.

Thats interesting data. Just wondering how Butlers Bridge in Cavan can be 4 degrees lower than Cavan town a few miles down the road from it?

Mothman

Euro_Kraut wrote: »

Thats interesting data. Just wondering how Butlers Bridge in Cavan can be 4 degrees lower than Cavan town a few miles down the road from it?

Local topography can have a huge bearing on temps with hollows usually being colder than surrounding higher ground. This is due to cold air sinking. I've no knowledge of the local topography of Cavan or Butler's Bridge, so difficult to comment further.

Note at a site, there can be a 6C or more difference in air temp at 1.2m and temp at ones feet.

kleefarr

Kilkenny City outskirts...

Temperature: -3.6 °C
Dew Point: -3.9 °C

A blob of red on the raintoday radar. Here's hoping eh.

Merry Christmas.