Weather warning / Road Condition thread 2010 / 2011

ootbitb

anyone find this the worst day yet for grip on the untreated compacted snow?

ednwireland

ootbitb wrote: »

anyone find this the worst day yet for grip on the untreated compacted snow?

at least the drives completely cleared (so happy i shoveled the snow off it now) and the roads i drive into town are through to tarmac !

dee o gee

What are footpaths like in Letterkenny?

byte

irish-stew wrote: »

Is there still much compacted snow and ice on the back roads around donegal town?

Our estate in Ardeskin has become very slippy today, as expected.

Hope it all clears tomorrow, in anticipation of the new wave of frost and snow supposedly due next week...

Mint Sauce

Oh my, Donegal Town really did get alot of snow, noticed the odd patch still remaining around parts of the Diamond.

:eek:

Mint Sauce

byte wrote: »

Our estate in Ardeskin has become very slippy today, as expected.

Hope it all clears tomorrow, in anticipation of the new wave of frost and snow supposedly due next week...

This is the worst part, when the ice left underneath is exposed by melting snow, it smooths out during the slight thaw and rain fall, and is then twice a slippy when it freezes again.

Harps

dee o gee wrote: »

What are footpaths like in Letterkenny?

Still terrible. The town centre has been cleared and gritted but most footpaths are simply impossible to walk on. I've just had to walk on the road for the past 2 days

byte

irish-stew wrote: »

This is the worst part, when the ice left underneath is exposed by melting snow, it smooths out during the slight thaw and rain fall, and is then twice a slippy when it freezes again.

Yeah, I agree.

I think something will need to be done with relation to getting grit or something for our estate for the next installment of ice/snow/etc.

Mint Sauce

byte wrote: »

Yeah, I agree.

I think something will need to be done with relation to getting grit or something for our estate for the next installment of ice/snow/etc.

And there are some big hills around there.

Nicoladuff

Just ventured out this morning, footpaths are starting to clear, mostly fine up the town, but take care on the outskirts such as the footpath on the way to tesco and aldi (the foothpath on the right side going into aldi is closed). My suggestion...ditch your runners or heels and wear boots with good grips!!!

NIMAN

Big prediction for temps around -8 to -9 next weekend again.:mad:

byte

NIMAN wrote: »

Big prediction for temps around -8 to -9 next weekend again.:mad:

Ah Christ!

Nicoladuff

Check this out: Our weather up until christmas - this guy was on the button last year

http://www.accuweather.com/video/700277018001/european-then-you-are-a-freez.asp

http://www.accuweather.com/video/655578741001/lots-of-questions-a-few-answers.asp

Harps

MT over on the weather forum is great as well, he predicted the last snow two weeks before it happened so worth following what he has to say

At the moment its still too far away to get an accurate picture but its looking like a severely cold northerly wind next Thursay/Friday and Donegal would be right in the path of any snow so its definitely something to keep an eye on. Get all Christmas shopping done before the weekend if possible

Nicoladuff

sorry for my ignorance, is the weather forum on boards? - yep, it sounds like it will be a very cold christmas time! -

Harps

M.T. Cranium wrote: »

Looking at the 18z GFS run, the signal continues to intensify for a very strong arctic outbreak starting around Thursday on this run ... basically what happens is that the high which gave the thaw and is now slowly chilling overhead is stretched out and destroyed by sudden events to the north where the Greenland high captures the height anomaly from the eastern Atlantic, and a huge polar hurricane (can't describe it as anything less) forms near Svalbard and drops rapidly south. This will have to be watched because as impressive as the current maps appear, if this feature were to hold together somewhat longer it would engulf Britain and Ireland in a very strong northerly of sub-freezing temperatures which is almost what the maps show now ... the only difference being that the northerly is rather strong instead of very strong.

I can't stress strongly enough that this will be a major winter weather onslaught and not just a drop in temperatures with a few local flurries.

This is like turning the eastern Atlantic into the Great Lakes, almost, when you have this much cold air rushing south this fast, it overcomes the normal tendencies of the Atlantic to modify air masses and turn streamers to mush. This setup could give blizzard like conditions even with winds somewhat west of due north, in many parts of Ireland. And we aren't that confident that the setup is perfectly modelled yet, what's probably equally likely at this point is that the polar low will drop into the North Sea and pull Siberian air across into the N-NE flow on following days. There is also a lot of super-cold air waiting to head west from central to northwest Russia and around Novaya Zemlya.

When this polar hurricane develops, winds are going to be 50-70 knots around Jan Mayen with temperatures of -12 C ... the ice margin will probably shift south in this period to reach limits not seen in recent years, and the Baltic Sea is rapidly freezing and spilling out 0-2 C water into the North Sea. All of these factors are building blocks towards what may become an epochal cold spell for Ireland and Britain in the next 20-30 day interval.

MT's latest update

Its still only speculation for now but if this does happen then its going to be a massive event :eek:

mrmac

Nicoladuff wrote: »

sorry for my ignorance, is the weather forum on boards? - yep, it sounds like it will be a very cold christmas time! -

Weather Forum - sub. forum of Science Category.

It's a great forum to read, as you learn what's going on in the background, and it's usually more accurate than Met Eireann!

Deer Hunter DL

never ever in my life did i see the roads as bad around donegal town last night the car was spining in 5th gear as low speeds :eek: didn't seem to be much salt on the road

Domscard

I think I heard we'd run out of salt - or all but run out? :mad: And now we're facing into more of the same or worse weather later this week.

irish1967

Deer Hunter DL wrote: »

never ever in my life did i see the roads as bad around donegal town last night the car was spining in 5th gear as low speeds :eek: didn't seem to be much salt on the road

Was crazy this morning. Was on way to Galway. At Laghey a convoy of around 20 cars etc. Max speed 23km/h. Took us 1hr 5mins to get to bundoran. Never seen the roads so bad. No sign of salt grit whatever. Madness !!

minichunkies

irish1967 wrote: »

Was crazy this morning. Was on way to Galway. At Laghey a convoy of around 20 cars etc. Max speed 23km/h. Took us 1hr 5mins to get to bundoran. Never seen the roads so bad. No sign of salt grit whatever. Madness !!

And you never got to Galway?

irish1967

Hi from the G hotel in Galway !

puffdragon

Nothing like seeing the real thing for yourself. I didnt really believe that Donegal co council gritter lorries would drive over an icy road without gritting it but I was in Lifford earlier and just as I came to the roundabout a Northern Ireland gritter came over the bridge from Strabane , obviously they have to grit the bridge so use the roundabout to turn and head back into Strabane again,

The amount of grit coming from the lorry was decent and the spinner wasn't turning so hard as to shoot it all into the hedge either, a nice even layer of grit directly behind the lorry, as it should be,

I was in ASDA for about half an hour and headed back to home taking me from Lifford to Killygordon, the traffic slowed a bit outside Lifford and when the taxi in front of me pulled in I was then directly behind a Donegal Co Council gritter all the way from Cloughfinn to Killygordon,

The spinner wasn't even turning! and the road was shining under the oncoming lights of other traffic and I did notice that there was no grit on the road because you would see it blowing about on a dry road,

This is'nt going to help anyone on the roads tonight but please be carefull, Donegal Co Council are obviously saving the salt for worse weather because they got salt delivered to Lifford on friday and even if the lorries are out thats no gurantee that their doing anything!!

inode

definitely haven't seen the gritters go out the Derry Road today... roads are very slippy out there too. looks like snow on Thursday again too :mad:

Nicoladuff

I agree, roads are pretty bad tonight, I lost control of my car going into elmwood downs - the road was lethal, just stopped short of a parked van. I have decided that it is best to go on foot from now on!! I have my snow boots at the ready!

NIMAN

Its another bitterly cold night in the NW.

Everyone take care on the roads in the morning.

ednwireland

at least they seem to have gritted the main roads this morning (which is more than can be said for yesterday)

muffler

Slightly off topic but an associated problem nevertheless I see more and more people buying the bags of salt for use around the house. Just be careful not to use it on concrete as it will basically eat into some of it. Depending on the age of the concrete and the proportion of cement content you run the risk of the salt interacting with the cement.

mrmac

Still slightly OT, (but since you started it!), is there something, other than salt, that's good for de-icing concrete?

muffler

mrmac wrote: »

Still slightly OT, (but since you started it!), is there something, other than salt, that's good for de-icing concrete?

Apart from the old kettle/bucket of warm water you may be looking at salt again. :eek:

There are several types of salt and the most popular type round these parts appears to be "rock salt" which contains calcium chloride and it chemically interacts with cement.

However if you can source salt that contains magnesium chloride then it should be relatively safe to use. Ordinary table salt is OK but it wont go far though and if you have a substantial area to treat then it will be substantially more expensive that the bagged products.

There is a good article here on the different types of salt.

I recall the parents (years ago) spreading the ashes and cinders from the fire on top of snow. Not the cleanest of methods but it would partly melt the snow and ice but more importantly the cinders would give a decent grip on frozen snow.