Freezing weather set for West Cork

ICE and freezing temperatures will lead to dangerous driving conditions this week according to Met Éireann, which has issued multiple weather warnings for the coming week.

Yellow ice and low temperature warnings are in place for the entire country from today until Monday, December 12th at 9am.

The warnings come as an arctic airmass sets in, which is forecast to bring sharp to severe frosts and icy stretches on roads. Showers of hail, sleet and snow are forecast for the second half of this week, with the potential for freezing fog to occur over the weekend.

The weather is predicted to result in hazardous conditions as a band of wintry precipitation will sink southwards overnight on Thursday with the potential for black ice and freezing rain on surfaces.

Head of forecasting at Met Éireann Evelyn Cusack has said that people need to be careful in the cold waether, and that snow is likely to remain in the north of the country for now.

Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne on Monday, she said that snow is likely to remain in the north of the island, but that people should be aware of other concerns such as black ice.

'Donegal is likely to get snow on Wednesday night, Northern Ireland, Cavan, Monaghan, maybe parts of Sligo, Leitrim and Mayo,' she said. 'But it’s unlikely to get down to Dublin or Cork or even Galway. That snow on Wednesday night will freeze over, generally the odd snow flurry is likely but it looks like it’s going to be mainly dry certainly right through over the weekend, that may change for next week.'

Met Eireann are advising road users in particular to be extremely cautious when driving due to potential dangerous road conditions.

'Ireland has a huge network of secondary roads and it’s obviously not possible to grit them all so even though the weather itself will be dry, the ground is super saturated and quite waterlogged and that will freeze over, and that’s what we mean by black ice.'

The current weather forecast for West Cork sees temperatures dropping to 0°C and below freezing point each night between now and Monday, with Cusack saying that the weather forecaster may need to issue further low temperature warnings in coming days, as it is expected that ground temperatures could reach -6 or -7°C.

Further updates are expected in the coming days.