Jan 2025 - Snow & Freezing Conditions - Discussion PART II

WolfeEire

A 14 C difference in the temperature from north to south.

Ballybofey in Donegal remains freezing at -3.2 C while Sherkin Island in Cork is 10.7 C.

Meanwhile, light snow was reported at Knock Airport in Mayo at 2pm.

Thunder87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123040454#Comment_123040454

I mostly agree and and also mostly came to the same realisation over the years, used to love the idea of snow when I was younger but these days I detest this time of year and just look forward to the first day with a bit of warmth from October onwards.

In saying that I'd love a repeat of 2010, one thing that stood out in the December period was that the temperature never went above freezing at all after the snowfall so the snow never developed a layer of ice on it and was really easy to walk on, almost like walking through fine grainy sand. The endless blue skies (sunniest December on record I think) and every single surface turning white with frost made for a really surreal landscape.

With our regular slushy snow though I'm glad it usually only lasts a few days at most

Billcarson

Maybe part of the reason those that got snow are complaining is because it was wetter snow so became more icy and concrete like after a few days and therefore more difficult to get around in. Would dry fluffy snow have brought less complaints??

ClimateObserver

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123041884#Comment_123041884

Absolutely. Because the snow fell when temperatures were mostly between 0c and +1c, this allowed a very slight thaw as it settled. This liquid froze underneath the snow and in particular where people walked on the snow or car wheels drove, this compressed into solid ice. It was brutal to get about in.

The Beast from the east was more powdery, especially in the showers beforehand - I remember barely able to roll up snow for a snowman a day before the main event hit. The snow in 2010 was also much more light and fluffy, as too was the January 2021 'dusting'.

I think this event was one of the most impactful on general travel and mobility for a long while. The only other comparison was late-March 2017 (not the St. Patrick's Day one of 2018). That event was very heavy in these parts and brought down light branches.

Mooro

The thaw has definitely set in in Tullamore. While I enjoyed the last couple of days I am glad to see the back of it. Most of my work for this week had to be rescheduled due to the weather conditions. Back to normal next week. Here's a few images from outside the town yesterday morning.

miamee

Fantastic photos @Mooro

squonk

Back to resistive mills shítty drizzle here in north Clare. I know I personally wasn’t seriously impacted by the weather over the last week alder from yesterday when roads and paths froze over but I’ll miss the cold, calm conditions.

road_high

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123041884#Comment_123041884

I think so. We were hit hard by the Beast from the eat at but that seemed much easier to get around and melted quicker. Even today now at 4 C it’s stubborn as hell to go

Thunder87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042086#Comment_123042086

Entirely depends on your location though, I was fully snowed in for a full week in 2018 in Kildare

Supercell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042021#Comment_123042021

Wow, just wow, those are amazing! First one and second from last could be postcards, really beautiful. Never ever gets like that here so close to the coast, would love to see scenes like that for real one day.

nacho libre

We have had very little precipitation so far. It has gotten milder over the day but still feels fairly raw because of the breeze

Mooro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042148#Comment_123042148

Thanks very much Supercell.

DayInTheBog

Serious thaw on here in North Kerry. 6C as I write. Very little snow left in the driveway

WolfeEire

One sign of normality returning at the tail end of this cold spell is the restoration of electricity to 59,000 properties in counties Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Carlow, Laois and Wicklow that were impacted by heavy snowfall last weekend. Kudos to the ESB and contractor crews.

Robwindstorm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042021#Comment_123042021

I agree with supercell. They are stunningly beautiful photos. You'll have to archive those. Well done Mooro

mcburns07

Today is the third day in the last 7 that has been a wall to wall washout in Cork, miserable.

WolfeEire

<end_cold_spell/>

c'est fini

Robwindstorm

Before you depart back into the woods Wolf, I would like to congratulate yourself and Meteorite along with kermit, for the enormous input you put into the cold spell. Well done, until your next feast!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042432#Comment_123042432

.Donegal.

Katesbridge had a strange temperature change overnight.

-5.3 4am

0.1c 5am

-3.8c 6am

The last station below 0c is no more on wow Ballybofey 0.1c . I checked it there now and the last time it was 4.1c plus was New Year’s Day. Reached 4c briefly on the 3d and below that this past week. 19m asl

xhomelezz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042432#Comment_123042432

Don't be so quick..😁

Mooro

And the last few of the current cold spell. These are from this morning at Charleville Castle in Tullamore. I can't read weather charts and barely understand the more knowledgeable contributors on here but I do enjoy the build up to these events and the shared experiences once the cold weather hits. Here's to the next one although I do believe there will be quite a few damp 'squids' before then 😀

Oíche Na Gaoithe Móire

It's probable Reeling in the Years 2025 will begin with the Snowfall. It's possible there won't be as big a snowfall for the rest of the decade, 4/5 years.

My thoughts on snow. I love the fresh fall. It's so bright and pure looking. After a few days frost puts a crust and it loses its lustre.

I'm mostly in Portlaoise for a decade now. Prior to that I'd 40 years at home, very high ground, with frequent snowfall, even in milder winters. The excitement of no primary or secondary school. This was followed by the snowed in period where you couldn't move.

There was hardship during this time, feeding cattle silage and hay. You'd be using bare hands on a lot of machinery and implements. As you got older and literally 'weathered' you could take the cold. As a child, the flesh was soft and you'd have to stick out the chores until you got inside.

I've a lot of memories of running around with hot water in kettles thawing frozen pipes. Breaking water ponds with sledgehammer and directing cattle to water. Tractors slow to start, despite having antifreeze in was another.

By the end of the week you met only your parents and siblings, and really wanted to get out, cabin fever.

The thaw was the worst part, grey, dirty, gloomy and sloppy. And still dangerous with ice around. Often more accidents happened in the thaw when people forgot themselves walking and driving.

Elmer Blooker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123040454#Comment_123040454

A completely over the top post, the problem is the car culture of today when people have to drive in order to get a litre of milk or a loaf of bread, years ago when there were real winters people just got with it.

Kaybaykwah

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123040271#Comment_123040271

Where I live in Canada, the earth freezes down to 5 1/2 feet, and the sewer mains are below that line, so that it is considerably warmer the lower you go. That heat is rising to warm the manhole (ugh! Sorry, personhole) cover.

Foggy Jew

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042756#Comment_123042756

How right you are. Ah!!! The good old days. Women, pregnant, barefoot and in the kitchen. Baking their own bread. Milking the cows. Caring for litters of kids. Trudging to the well for water & lugging buckets of it back home. Washing clothes by hand. Emptying potties from under the beds. Wringing the necks of their own chicken to provide the makings of a dinner. Simpler, happier times. Since the internal combustion engine was invented, women have simply gone to the dogs.

munsterlegend

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042618#Comment_123042618

Yes great input from the regulars here. While I have had enough of snow for now I am sure in another couple of weeks I'll be hoping for more again.

Bishop of hope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042714#Comment_123042714

20240301_075258.jpg

20240301_075314.jpg

These are from early March last year, it depends on where you live in suppose.

I'm in North longford and we only got a dusting this time really, but we usually get a heavy fall at some time each year. It depends on whether you are affected or not as to how you're affected. It didn't last but a day, but we had 9 inches and we could build snowmen. I'm 140m asl.

KanyeSouthEast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042756#Comment_123042756

incorrect. Footpaths were absolutely lethal and untreated people couldn’t get to the roads from estates to even attempt to drive not to mind walk.

Cluedo Monopoly

I noticed loads of people left their outdoor Xmas lights on for the past week. They looked very nice with the frosty cold nights.

Dazler97

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042986#Comment_123042986

Yes including me I'm taking mine down tomorrow there still a little frozen even though it's 2c here

Robwindstorm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042714#Comment_123042714

That was me this morning 😁 . Bucketing water from an IBC to the cattle while trying to defrost their drinker with hot water. Then the old MF 165 won't start to feed out bales so I had to take out the battery to give it a quick boost, all the while I was clock watching as I had to collect the little one from school.

JanuarySnowstor

A few takeaways from the cold spell

-- Most were not calling for a Red warning on here. I was one of the few who was. The reality is where the Orange warning was easily exceeded red criteria. Plenty were caught out and had to abandon cars in places like Charleville.

-- The ecm did very well. It was showing copious amounts of snow in the South Midlands. The bbc (once the go to for accurate forecasts) was very poor. Their graphics the night before did not adequately show the risk.

--It rivalled Storm Emma, which is an extraordinary feat in itself.

-- Some of the most wintry weather of the last 50 years has come in the previous 14 years. Global warming is not all about mild!!

.Donegal.

Sheep buried under drifts. Video with sound at bottom of page

https://www.rte.ie/news/munster/2025/0110/1490109-sheep-mountain-rescue/

Seadin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123040850#Comment_123040850

I put a chimney into my plans in 2018 and got planning permission to build a house with a chimney. When my builders were building the house they were giving out to me that I was wasting my time and money putting a chimney into the house that I wouldn't need it with all the heat in the new build. All I said at the time was it's better to have it than be looking for it. I told them about storm Darwin in 2014 and having no power for over a week. Told them I need a backup here can't do without it.

So then few years later my daughter was born and about two weeks after her birth we had an issue with our heat pump and had no heat. We couldn't get a serviceman out to our heat pump for 4 weeks, there was a few weeks of frost at that stage and the house had got cold and trying to keep the house warm for a two week old baby was so hard. I swore to myself I'd fit a stove first chance I got after that and I did it immediately.

Last week we lost power and i lit the stove and was able to boil water, porridge and boil eggs with the stove. It kept the house cosy until we got the power back. I also got a gas ring and bottle to cook some dinner. Everyone should have some form of backup. The one thing I didn't have was enough salt but Il put bags of it into the shed going forward, it might be handy one day and maybe a few 25l containers and have them full of water if you know something abnormal is coming like a storm, heat wave or snowfall.

DOCARCH

Mod Note: Let's not end the thread with insults!

Duvet Day

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123043137#Comment_123043137

I watched that earlier and can't stop thinking about it all day. Would they have brought them down the mountain if there had been a red warning?

Elmer Blooker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042951#Comment_123042951

that’s understandable if someone is elderly or in bad health but winter weather shouldn’t be too much of a problem for the able-bodied, I’m old enough to remember the drifts in 1982.

cnocbui

It was with relief I realised it was over, when the postie dropped off a package.

Hontou

@Mooro Thank you for putting up those incredibly beautiful photos. What a talent. A wonderful finale to the cold spell.

giveitholly

Wedding guests stranded in a hotel for days

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41551501.html

sryanbruen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042756#Comment_123042756

Yes it may be over the top but I was trying to be nice and see it from the point of view of those affected majorly which we certainly weren't in Dublin minus the odd ice patch. It's good to step outside our backyard.

People just may have got on with it or not depending on which event you are specifically referring to but the truth is I don't have the experience of those times to be able to compare to. 2010 is the closest I have comparison to for a prolonged, severe and snowy spell, and that's why I mention it. But 2010 I was an innocent child, weeks with flu and off school. I wasn't alive for 1982, never mind being a kid. Times have changed either way. I think saying to drive to get just milk and bread is disingenuous though.

At no point did I say the current spell was exceptional. It wasn't. Out of all people, I think I'd be the first to call whether something was exceptional or not given the database of historic events I've built up. However, that being said, the snow experienced on Sunday for parts and then the duration it persisted was very noteworthy and is a situation I do not envy as no doubt my very bad anxiety would push me over the edge if I was in their circumstances of no running water or power. That's all I said. Whatever happened in 1982 is of little relevance to me here and now in regards to this spell.

Anyway, moving on, I think WolfeEire's contributions to this thread have been nothing short of brilliant. Those satellite images with the locations marked were fantastic and in general the updates were super. Meteorite58 as always giving a good synopsis on the model runs and of course Kermit for starting the thread as well as keeping the eternal optimism of some white powder for the capital. Thank you very much lads for keeping us all updated. Here's to the next one whenever that will be. Whatever weather happens, the camera is always ready and the Excel spreadsheets are primed for some records to be broken 😛

giveitholly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123043316#Comment_123043316

Excellent post yet again sryan,Well done 👏

Dazler97

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123043139#Comment_123043139

Yes I wish we had a chimney and a fire all houses in my estate (built 2003) have none and all storage heaters so when we lost power (20 hours) during storm Darragh the house was like an igloo and mind you it was 7c at the time outside, at one stage the fridge was warmer than the house , I could get a stove in but that would crack the walls and damage flooring to mams bedroom , these houses have very little concrete and insulation so I'm gonna hopefully get a grant as we'd be entitled to one but the stove is probably 4 grand I'd love one but we shall see anyway, in other words all houses should have an alternative to electric,

ClimateObserver

As the cold spell comes to a close, I have some mixed thoughts on the whole event.

The pros:

• The will it won't it in the build up (there was always a threat of a bust) in the time from December 28th when it really gained traction on the charts - a week out in fairness!
• The copious amount of snow - my area is quite sheltered and to get 13cm over 20hrs was a decent return for a valley location
• The event gave something to focus on post-Christmas and New Years when typically the January blues set in
• First third of January over and the monthly average just below 0c - it will take a helluva mild spell to drive January '25 above average (but not an impossible task looking at the LRF)
• January is shortened!
• A decent and prolonged cold spell with seven consecutive days of snow cover
• Recorded an ice day!
• Gained even more knowledge
• Saved a few bob as I wasn't out and about much
• Seeing other fantastic photos on social media from those who braved the outdoors and even some travel - imagine they had camera-phones and internet in 1947 or 1963? We'd have some gallery to awe and gaze over.

The cons:

• The quality of the snow was overall poor - very moisture laden
• Slow thaw and re-freeze of the above
• Fog and overnight breezes hindered any serious lows to challenge minima from recent years. The January 2021 light snow event yielded colder overnight lows despite the snow being only a fraction in depth
• Mobility - again related to the quality of the snow, it bottom melted into thick ice rendering footpaths and untreated roads lethal.
• Monday night's shallow low introduced alot of moisture into the mix leading to heavy fog across the following three nights
• Shuttering of schools when local authorities could have cleared roads sooner - i.e. Monday.
• Most foothpaths were not cleared which is a big step back from efforts made in 2010 and 2018. (Maybe it was just this county?)

Overall though, a significant winter snow event which despite being the strongest regarding volumes of snow, the cons detract from making it an 'epic' event. But it is up there nonetheless.

Would just like to say too, hats off to the regulars on here (you know who you are) for their consistent sharing of good quality interpretations of model outputs, to the photographers who brought the far and beyond magical countryside scenery to our screens - amazing work, well done. And even to the hurlers on the ditch - borderline wind up merchants, some of yea are a bit of craic too and keeps a certain amount of energy (sometimes comedy) flowing.

To those who bore the brunt of the storm through lost power, water, livestock and employment (without pay) - I wish you better fortunes in the year ahead - nature often balances the books, and I hope it does for you too.

Finally - the curtains fall on a memorable winter event for many parts of southern and central and northern Ireland. Some areas didn't get the full brunt - maybe next time. The snow does visit us all at some stage, here's hoping the next event isn't too far away - but in the meantime those who experienced this will no doubt welcome the upcoming mild and dry week to reset before the next chase gets underway. If that fails, late-Spring and early-Summer thunderstorms are not all that far away!

PS: Spare a thought for the north of Scotland where it is -17c presently and I don't think they got above -12c this afternoon, we weren't that far off getting that here had the door to true arctic air not been cut off Monday night. :o

irish1967

Fields will be covered in chicken, burgers and hopefully desserts

Joe1919

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123043384#Comment_123043384

I have a Superser and a yellow bottle of Butane along with a compatible gas ring. Cost less than 200.

selectamatic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042004#Comment_123042004

2009 in my area of the NW Roscommon was the most disruptive to travel I have ever experienced. All non national primary roads were solid ice after a day or two. 2nd gear on idle in the car was about the height of speed and you'd still be doing a little dance to keep forward momentum. Tractors even struggled badly with the roads.

Some days had a slight thaw and then really hard frosts again at night so the ice continued to get slicker and slicker.

2010 had similar compacted snow/ice but it never had any thaw to slicken it up. And the powdery snow seemed to aid the grip levels although tbf the snow was still pretty rock solid thanks to the -18°c we had.

ClimateObserver

One more point of note, the house feels cooler tonight than last night when it was ~10°C colder outside. I blame the 'damp' as everything continues to thaw outside.

Dazler97

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123043421#Comment_123043421

I don't trust them alot of people's I know have leaked and they got poisoning but I'll have to get 1

Greengrass53

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123040750#Comment_123040750

You can't see the nonsensical nature of his comment? Sorry can't help you then.