Bitter cold snap ‘coming to end’

A cold snap which saw tens of thousands without power or water is coming to an end, the Irish national weather agency said.

The bitterly cold Arctic airmass that has been affecting the country for several days will start to move away, with milder conditions developing later in the weekend.

The Republic of Ireland’s weather agency had issues a Status Orange low temperature and ice warning for more than half the country overnight.

Met Eireann said temperatures dropped below minus 6C in parts, reaching a low of minus 6.6C at Mount Dillon, Co Roscommon.

That advisory, mainly for in-land counties, expired at 8am on Friday. However, a week-long Yellow-level warning for the whole country remains in place until midday.

While Friday will still be very cold, a weather front has been slowly moving north-eastwards over the island since Thursday night and will cause temperatures to rise by a few degrees.

Met Eireann said this front will initially give sleet and snow on higher ground but will gradually turn to rain as the front moves north-eastwards through Friday.

Eoin Sherlock, the agency’s head of forecasting Eoin Sherlock said: “This prolonged spell of cold, impactful weather is coming to its end this weekend.”

However, he warned that dangerous conditions will persist on Friday.

The Electricity Supply Board and Irish water agency Uisce Eireann said the vast majority of customers who had been cut off from power and water have had their services restored.

Temperatures are expected to stay just above freezing on Friday night.

Mr Sherlock added: “Temperatures will range from 4 to 8 degrees on Saturday, and temperatures should fall to between 2 and 6 degrees in general.

“It will be Sunday before temperatures really start to increase with highs of 8 to 11 degrees as a milder airmass takes its place over the country.”

The UK Met Office had also issued a Yellow-level ice warning for Antrim, Down, Tyrone and Londonderry which was due to expire at 10am.