The Big Freeze - Dec 2022

whelan2

I leave it in a shed at night time

Heavy downpours here all day, I did not miss it one bit.

patsy_mccabe

Big change here in the next few hours. Wind has changed. We're now getting a south westerly wind to bring higher temps.

Siamsa Sessions

Forecast is for rising temperatures overnight here so hopefully the pipes will have thawed by lunchtime tomorrow.

And apparently it's going to be close to 12C on Sunday. But rain with it.

emaherx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120004320#Comment_120004320

I filled 3 of them and covered with straw in the shed, kept me with water for the week. First two were no issue, but the one today was a little frozen at the tap, but blow lamp thawed it enough to open.

Might make up some styrofoam covers for the taps for future use.

mr.stonewall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120004591#Comment_120004591

Feeling the rise in temps here as I fodder. One less layer of clothing and less ice in water bowls

farawaygrass

I was listening to the two Johnny’s on the Radio during the week. They were on about how could people work outside in the cold. A farmer text in saying he was farming all morning and and didn’t feel too cold, he then went shopping for a few hours and was frozen, and then back farming again for the afternoon and was grand again 😅

Silverdream

Cut rushes today, might as well take advantage of the frozen ground

davidk1394

Got out of the car at 11.30 pm last night and it showed -2, got up and went out this morning, most of the frost is gone but the yards are lethal while it's melting.

Just to add, slipped and fell twice already, like the ones you'd see in home alone 🤣

whelan2

Fell this morning too and on Thursday

Silverdream

Slippy this morning, jezz old age catches up on you too, I'm like an old cripple trying to get around!

Lime Tree Farm

Andrew Marr

On the 23 Jan 1947 Britain awoke to what become the coldest winter of the century. Icy winds, heavy frost and quiet a lot of snow, real austerity weather. For 3 months the coal waiting by the pits had to stay there, frozen and buried. One by one the power stations had to close. Within a week 2 million people had been laid off. England caught in the cold grip of economic crises, the sea frozen for the first time since 1929. With compressed air drill parsnips are harvested. And England on this frozen island a little piece of coal becomes of great importance. As the crisis grew Atlee's government was drawing up secret plans for dealing with mass starvation. The plans were declassified in 1978, an alarming economic file in post war Britain with a famine food programme, military style conscription to work the land, taking off 50k school children to take in the harvest.

I wonder what it was like in Ireland during the same period

Silverdream

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120006758#Comment_120006758

Was there still ration books in place in Ireland for a good few years after WW2. I know my father talked about these ration books a lot. I'm sorry now I didn't ask him more about them as it seems they controlled what basics you were allowed to buy

Base price

I remember my Dad telling me that he and many of his friends had to go up the Dublin mountains to rear turf during the war years. Sugar and tea were scarce and the tea leaves were used over and over. My Mam told me that her parents (Longford) used to send food packages to her by train as she was living in Dublin. A lot of people kept a few hens in their back gardens in the city.

whelan2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120006758#Comment_120006758

My mam was born in wexford in April 1947, snow was still up over the ditches at that stage

endainoz

Local roads in north Clare were absolutely lethal this morning. Freezing rain fell through the night and the roads were already wet from previous rain. Several cars overturned and stuck in ditches. People really seemed to be caught unaware of the whole thing because it was just a yellow warning. It possibly should have been red given how lethal the roads were.

Dinzee Conlee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120006945#Comment_120006945

I found my grandparents ration books there a few years ago… Not sure how long after the war they continued on for…

One of the ration books was all crayon, done by my mother when she was very small 🙂

_Brian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120007228#Comment_120007228

My mum told me that when she was a child there was a stump of a tree in their garden maybe 7ft tall. During a snowstorm my grandfather went out and cut the tree level with the snow as they were out of fuel. When the snow subsided the stump was left standing tall.

one of the interesting stories she shared with me late one night over tea while nursing her in her final weeks.

Anto_Meath

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120006758#Comment_120006758

An old neighbor was telling me a few years back about 1947. He worked as a farm hand on the nearby estate. He told me he took the horse from the plough on Christmas eve in the field and put her in the stable. He was said the lady of the house had serious sympathy for the the poor mare but as he said not a word for the lug that was working her. He said the frost came then followed by the snow and it was after St Patrick's day before he got back out to the plough in the field.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120018158#Comment_120018158

Imagine if Eamon was around then

Anto_Meath

@[Deleted User] I think Eamon wants to send us all back to them times. but we would need to lock up the horse encase the wolf would get at her....

I wounder was this big freeze 75 years ago the start of climate change? or was it the night of the big wind in in January 1939?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120018247#Comment_120018247

That question would be above my pay grade. I'm a bit reluctant to talk much about climate change any more given the vast swathe of agendas and science for sale that's latched onto it. Not denying it, but it does make me wonder about trends versus freak events and whether there is or isn't longer term trends at work. Humans are only a snapshot in time, change has always happened, perhaps it's us that are temporary and conditions are not supposed to permanently favour us. Doesn't change how dependent we are on bad ideas mind.

Jb1989

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120018247#Comment_120018247

Maybe the ice age was the start of the climate change, those pesky dinasaurs had no regard for reducing, reusing and recycling..

Siamsa Sessions

Homelessness, hospital beds, and health/mental supports for those who need it.

When any Govt sorts these issues, then let’s worry about growing lettuce in window boxes to set an example for the Chinese

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120019928#Comment_120019928

Youngest came home for Christmas - he got a flight home to Dublin Airport (just up the road from my home place in NCD) from Scotland on Saturday night for £29 (STG) one way. He said that it would have cost him over £600 (STG) if he drove his car home via the ferry to Belfast.

I says

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120018158#Comment_120018158

The father in law whose plenty young enough remembers vaguely 47 and says the snow drifts were still under ditches and trees till late may early June.

Danzy

https://turtlebunbury.wordpress.com/2017/12/13/the-big-snow-of-1947/

A good read.

orm0nd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120006758#Comment_120006758

I think it was particularly bad in the midlands, so much so that they had difficulty opening the graves to bury the dead

Saddest event I heard of locally was a child and his uncle perished in a snow blizzard while returning from town on foot with provisions. They were found the following day both dead and huddled together.

Not sure of the date but it was well into April possibly around the 20th.