Weather warning / Road Condition thread 2010 / 2011

Mint Sauce

muffler wrote: »

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.

Only problem with pooring water of the drive it refrezzes. Used to love my house mate when she done this, would poor water over all the windscreens to clear them, I would head out 1/2 hour later to an icering on the drive way.

Tried the ashes trick last week after two failed attempts to get the car up the drive, it worked, but left an awful mess.

muffler

irish-stew wrote: »

Only problem with pooring water of the drive it refrezzes. Used to love my house mate when she done this, would poor water over all the windscreens to clear them, I would head out 1/2 hour later to an icering on the drive way.

Tried the ashes trick last week after two failed attempts to get the car up the drive, it worked, but left an awful mess.

Yeah the warm water is a 5 minute temporary solution but does more harm than good at the end of the day (no pun intended )

muffler

Severe weather warning for NI on Thursday and Friday issued by the UK Met office

martic

I use salt alot on the tar drive but last year i was putting it on the footpaths as well resulting in me not having footpaths this year,it made a mess of them. A neighbour of mine was telling me that she heard putting cat litter on it is a better option but like ash it would be very messy.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_does_cat_litter_melt_ice

On topic the roads were the worst I've seen them yesterday,alot of hedges hit and seen 1 car in a field just before Porthall with a telegraph pole halved beside where it went in. A complete disgrace that the roads were not gritted yesterday knowing that most people would be doing catch up on their christmas shopping.

Essexboy

muffler wrote: »

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.

Yes. Wife put salt on ramp at back door. The smooth surface now looks like the moon with holes everywhere!

Mint Sauce

muffler wrote: »

Severe weather warning for NI on Thursday and Friday issued by the UK Met office

Thats another weekend I might not get home. There were still ice patches there over the weekend from the last fall.

henke

Looking like another great weekend weatherwise.

muffler

The way the weather's going this thread could make history on the forum by having the most posts

Domscard

I was always taught that there's a use for everything if you just hold onto it long enough and I proved it last year. A delivery van driver made the monumental mistake of driving into my concreted drive to save himself some time (?). 35 minutes later he was still trying to get away, revving like a lunatic and getting nowhere :pac:
Then we had a brainwave and rolled out a long length of old carpet over the snow and ice. It gave him enough traction to clear the drive - SUCCESS!
No mess afterwards, no damage to the concrete and we still have it for the next time.

inode

muffler wrote: »

The way the weather's going this thread could make history on the forum by having the most posts

i knew i started something big here

Harps

Just a further heads up as Met Eireann are always very conservative with extreme weather so probably wont say much until its already too late for people to prepare

Everyone on the weather forum is in agreement that we'll be getting more snow with the North West worst affected.

Keep an eye on this thread to keep up to date

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056118102

Mint Sauce

Applies to NI from midday thursday onwards

Snow showers will become increasingly frequent and heavy across western areas through Thursday and will then extend to some central areas on Friday. Accumulations of 5 to 10 cm are expected in general, but with possibly 20 cm of lying snow in places by Friday evening. Snow will be accompanied by strong north or northwesterly winds leading to some drifting.
This is expected to cause disruption to travel networks.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/ni/ni_forecast_warnings.html

We could be in for a rough weekend lads and lassies.

irish1967

But seriously as an addict of the weather threads I really think people should be advising family and friends not to attempt ANY travel on Thursday. On Friday it will be very evident that travel is not a good idea but Thursday will start relatively ok but will deteriorate very very quickly.
Yeah the guys on the weather thread could be wrong but it's looking more and more lightly they are right.
This is going to make the last cold spell look very tame indeed.
If they are wrong well no real harm done.

Mint Sauce

irish1967 wrote: »

But seriously as an addict of the weather threads I really think people should be advising family and friends not to attempt ANY travel on Thursday. On Friday it will be very evident that travel is not a good idea but Thursday will start relatively ok but will deteriorate very very quickly.
Yeah the guys on the weather thread could be wrong but it's looking more and more lightly they are right.
This is going to make the last cold spell look very tame indeed.
If they are wrong well no real harm done.

Thursday and friday are going to be quite bad me thinks as well, it could be a blanket covering, and if the recent reports on low salt supplies are anything to go by, no one will be going anywhere.

mrmac

I'm going into the Credit Union tomorrow, and see if I can get a student loan for one of these babies!





Make a bloody fortune as a taxi!

muffler

Right folks. I have tidied up this thread a bit as quite a few of the posts were going off on a tangent. I have moved these posts to a new thread where other issues such as gritting roads, driving experiences, tips and advice etc can be discussed.

So from here on can we just use this thread to post about the weather and road conditions throughout the county.

Nicoladuff

LOL I love it, I would certainly be a paying customer! Let me know how you get on in CU!!!!!!!

Nicoladuff

Its going to be snowboots and wraparound duvet coat for me!

Beanstalk

I'm hoping to travel to dublin tomorrow, but am unsure now because of the weather, i might not get home again too handy.

This forecast reckons its not going to be bad at all! Don't know what to think now.

Mint Sauce

Beanstalk wrote: »

I'm hoping to travel to dublin tomorrow, but am unsure now because of the weather, i might not get home again too handy.

This forecast reckons its not going to be bad at all! Don't know what to think now.

I've been using the UK sites since this weather turned bad. The met office for NI weather warnings (we're close enough), BBC weather site for radar maps, and to be honest, the beeb has been pretty on the mark so far, you can see a radar map for the whole country and zoom in on NI which covers all the boarder counties as well.

The beeb are giving snow for most places through out the day on thursday and friday, The met office, snow everywhere from midday thursday onwards.

Bligh

Met Eireann have a weather warning in operation

http://www.met.ie/forecasts/warnings.asp

Forecasting between 10 and 15 cm of snow tomorrow, if it arrives very fast it will mean very bad conditions.

<SNIP>

henke

The weather is not looking good. It is mild enough out today that you would never guess such severe weather is on its way. It is hardly likely that the whole forecast is a huge error? I wish.

Nicoladuff

http://www.irishweatheronline.com/2010/12/regional-snowfall-predictions-for.html



wrap up warm, get the food stock (and drink) in, keep safe on the road, think we are in for a good ole dusting tomorrow...

minichunkies

Charlie Collins has said schools will definitely close on Friday.

http://www.highlandradio.com/2010/12/15/highland-asks-schools-to-decide-on-thursday-if-they-will-be-open-on-friday/

Listen to the chat of the fella!

ednwireland

anyone else think its a non-event i will wait till this aft and/or tomorrow morning, you'd think it was the day after tomorrow reading these threads, guys its a bit of snow prob as much as we had last time. you are all geared up for it now arent you

Domscard

ednwireland wrote: »

anyone else think its a non-event i will wait till this aft and/or tomorrow morning, you'd think it was the day after tomorrow reading these threads, guys its a bit of snow prob as much as we had last time. you are all geared up for it now arent you

Those of us who were busy warning friends and family of the great snowmageddon might end up with egg on our faces yet (and that includes me ). But in this case I'm HAPPY to be wrong (if I am ). Roll on the partying this weekend

Harps

Snow started already in Letterkenny..

Mint Sauce

ednwireland wrote: »

anyone else think its a non-event i will wait till this aft and/or tomorrow morning, you'd think it was the day after tomorrow reading these threads, guys its a bit of snow prob as much as we had last time. you are all geared up for it now arent you

Not that I think its going to be a none event, but maps are changing every few hours, places that I thought would get hit, are now not, places that were not, now are. This event looks even more un predictable than the one a couple of weeks ago.

Could be a very interesting weekend.

irish1967

According to weather thread its snowing heavily in L'Kenny and twin towns 11.15am

Beanstalk

yeah its died off a little in lk now, although sleet and rain have stopped and when there is precipitation it comes down as snow. it's all so exciting!