Snow a no show, what about the extreme cold then?

peasant

By all accounts Ulster / North Connacht and North Leinster are going to see extreme lows over the next few days. Down to possibly -20 in some places at night and still as low as -10 during the day ...so all in all a very hard freeze for a good few days. Not good for road conditions and potentially expensive around the house with freezing pipes etc.

Seenashow the snow excitement is going to be mostly over for the next few days ...are those temps worthy of their own thread?

(mods please delete if you don't think so)

Slidey

I think it may well be record breaking lows..

Donegal at the minute seems to be bearing the brunt of the cold going by the NRA roadside temps

Cian92

peasant wrote: »

By all accounts Ulster / North Connacht and North Leinster are going to see extreme lows over the next few days. Down to possibly -20 in some places at night and still as low as -10 during the day ...so all in all a very hard freeze for a good few days. Not good for road conditions and potentially expensive around the house with freezing pipes etc.

Seenashow the snow excitement is going to be mostly over for the next few days ...are those temps worthy of their own thread?

(mods please delete if you don't think so)

Just because Dublin didn't get any snow, doesn't mean the rest of the country got none too :rolleyes:

peasant

Cian92 wrote: »

none too

...any either ...

FYI, I'm from Sligo and we got between 5 - 20 cm here (depending on location) ...I'm still kinda worried about this approaching cold though. Things simply aren't built for this kind of weather around here

Slidey

-9 in Collooney already..

Scubadevils

Its pretty amazing stuff, I'd love to step outside into -20, just to feel what's like - cold obviously and doubt nice to hang around long in. Be interesting to see now if it does beat the current coldest temps.

peasant

Scubadevils wrote: »

Its pretty amazing stuff, I'd love to step outside into -20, just to feel what's like - cold obviously and doubt nice to hang around long in. Be interesting to see now if it does beat the current coldest temps.

I've experienced -25 once, it's not pleasant.
Naked skin freezes to metal on contact, the snot in your nose literally freezes and breathing through your mouth hurts. Any scarf that you put in front of your face will be covered in solid ice within minutes. Eyes water, nose runs ( and freezes:D) and ears hurt. Anything uncovered goes numb very quickly.

All sorts of things you take for granted stop working properly ...cars, door hinges, windows, letter boxes ...anything that's outside and has moving parts will be either very stiff or non-functional altogether.

Biglad

-7.5c at the moment. I've experienced -24c and I tell you the fun is short lived. Outdoor life becomes dangerous for peeps who are not used to this. Things that you wouldn't expect to freeze will including eyelids, noses etc.
I enjoy this cold spell though and I can't wait to see some records broken

I did a 200km speed skating marathon once in Austria at an average temperature of -10c, interesting experience...

Back to topic, temperature here still dropping, coldest last night was -9.0c, feel we will break that tonight...:D

445279.ie

Scubadevils wrote: »

Its pretty amazing stuff, I'd love to step outside into -20, just to feel what's like

Done it, one piece of advice - make sure you blow your nose first :eek:

Scubadevils

Yeah I'd say its pretty brutal alright, even popping my head out into -8 (according to my phone!) last night was bloody cold. The thoughts of my eye lids freezing would kinda knock the sense of wonder out the door though.

Darwin

Yes, I too experienced -25c earlier this year. Lets say it was a very sobering experience. I thought I would be fine going out in heavy jacket, fleece hat, scarf and gloves. After 2 minutes the exposed parts of my face felt like I was getting burned (if that makes sense). The cold just seeps through everything - not nice!

dirtyghettokid

i can hack up to about -20C but beyond that gets nasty. when i was 13, i was outside for 20 minutes walking home from a mates house in a windchill that was -42C (obviously not in ireland)
my legs were bright red and i spent the rest of the day in a heated bed. my face was very stiff from the cold.
the key to cold temps is keeping your skin covered! we used to wear balaclavas as a kid.. LOL all the kiddy snot getting frozen to your face.. ugh .. nasty!

thetonynator

-15 was the lowest i experienced, not too bad if you stay still, but when you move and the air is moving towards your face it hurts!!! Didnt stay out long . .. main thing i've noticed is that below -8 the inside of the double glazed window frames freezes, and round -10 the glass freezes too . .and thats with heating on in the room! :eek:

dirtyghettokid

a tip for this weather if anybody has old single glazed windows, like we do here is to pick up some plastic film kits from B&Q. comes with double sided tape and a large plastic sheet that you can cut to the size of your windows. you just stick it to the window as taut as possible and then use a hair dryer over it to finish. it really does help with cold draughts through the windows.

snaps

Also remember here in Ireland theres a greater humidity which makes it feel colder compared to somewhere like scandinavia.

Its the humidity which gives us the white in frost.

If it is -10c here and -10c in norway, it would feel a lot colder here, just because of the greater humidity.

anotherlostie

I was driving on the N3 and at just before 8pm the temperature gauge dropped to -11C passing Lavey Lake outside Cavan. Steady increase back to zero by the time I got to Dublin.

dirtyghettokid

snaps wrote: »

Also remember here in Ireland theres a greater humidity which makes it feel colder compared to somewhere like scandinavia.

Its the humidity which gives us the white in frost.

If it is -10c here and -10c in norway, it would feel a lot colder here, just because of the greater humidity.

absolutely! i can't bear the temps below 10C here hahaha
not looking forward to what -20C would feel like!
it was -9C i think about a fortnight ago when i was out in the morning taking photos and my face was sore and stiff enough then!

evercloserunion

Sitting here in a room with glass walls in TCD and absolutely freezing my balls off.

How will this affect road travel, will it be worse than the snow or not as bad?

sandra06

are you been serious about weather:D

peasant

evercloserunion wrote: »

Sitting here in a room with glass walls in TCD and absolutely freezing my balls off.

How will this affect road travel, will it be worse than the snow or not as bad?

If it stays really cold, conditions will just remain as they are, "frozen" so to speak

evercloserunion

peasant wrote: »

If it stays really cold, conditions will just remain as they are, "frozen" so to speak

Would a cold snap by itself make roads unusable, or would there need to be rain/snow as well to really make travel impossible?

ardmacha

Castlederg -16.6°C at 22:00

It has already broken the lowest max record today for December in NI at -11.0°C.

irish1967

-15.5 in Killygordon, Donegal @ 22.50. Gas frozen here.

nacho libre

the coldest i've experienced was -18, which was accompanied by 40 mph wind.

Mr Bloat

irish1967 wrote: »

-15.5 in Killygordon, Donegal @ 22.50. Gas frozen here.

Gas frozen? I never realised that would even happen, that's bloody scary.

Pacing Mule

These lows remind me of having worked in a supermarket and stock taking in the back store freezers. Just can't fathom the temp outside being the same as the freezer.

Slidey

Mr Bloat wrote: »

Gas frozen? I never realised that would even happen, that's bloody scary.

Poor quailty diesel jellifies as well. Blocks filters and leaves engines and central heating not working. Most heating systems now run on Kerosene now though

ardmacha

Castlederg -17.7°C 23:00

a tad chilly.

kkontour

nacho libre wrote: »

the coldest i've experienced was -18, which was accompanied by 40 mph wind.

Happened to me last year. Poured hot water on top of cylinder to get it working

thetonynator

All ireland all time low is -19 point something. . . Could be broken in the north anyway if not the republic. .

opinion guy

Experienced temperature of -21 C air temperature with wind chill added was equivalent to -50 C.
Foooooooook me that cold

We were only in it for 5 minutes but one lady got frost bite in her ear. Also as someone else said you have to be careful with how you cover your mouth as the moisture on your breath will freeze in the scarf etc.

I was fine thou since I had good gear one me.

Rougies

thetonynator wrote: »

All ireland all time low is -19 point something. . . Could be broken in the north anyway if not the republic. .

-19.1°C measured at Markree Castle, Co. Sligo on 16th January 1881

I wonder if Met Eireann only use temps in the republic for thier all time lows etc?

Pangea

nacho libre wrote: »

the coldest i've experienced was -18, which was accompanied by 40 mph wind.

Where was that Nacho?

Mint Sauce

-13 in Sligo at present.

Brrrrrrrr

Matt Simis

Mr Bloat wrote: »

Gas frozen? I never realised that would even happen, that's bloody scary.

Gas installer tells me that doesnt happen with Propane, just Butane and possibly butane / propane blends. What he said does freeze on propane (well all gas) tanks is the regulators (T Piece metal thing with gas lines going into it) due to moisture build up. His advice was to pour boiling water over the regulator to get it to free up. However I fear in -10 or lower that would likely freeze even worse (adding water).

Im thinking if I have to Ill use a Hot Air Gun on the low setting (metal fatigue is also a concern).

snow ghost

ardmacha wrote: »

Castlederg -17.7°C 23:00

a tad chilly.

That beats the North's previous record of -17.5 from 1979.

Although there is according to the UK met office an unnoficial record:

" -19.4 °C was recorded on 23 January 1881 at Omagh (County Tyrone), from a screen mounted on a north-facing wall. Due to the non-standard nature of this station, this is not accepted as the official minimum temperature record for Northern Ireland."

It will be interesting to see how low it can go tonight.

peasant

grrr ...I knew it ...accelerator cable frozen on the car :mad:

I'm about 5 km from Colooney Roundabout where it is currently -15

Cú Giobach

Mr Bloat wrote: »

Gas frozen? I never realised that would even happen, that's bloody scary.

My own gas froze here with the cold 2 wks ago that was at about -5/-6 or so, was pouring hot water on my cylinder every morning, the ttssss sound of it defrosting was slightly disconcerting.

ciaran67

nacho libre wrote: »

accompanied by 40 mph wind.

Thats curry for ya

ciaran67

I once drove (stupidly) to Sun Peaks ski resort in Kamloops, British Columbia from Vancouver just after xmas 2001. There was 15 foot of snow on either side of the road and down the middle. It was -25 when going out for a beer when we arrived.

steveLFC24

I went to lapland 2 years ago to go snowboarding, and my god the cold was unbearable...mainly because there was no fecking daylight (only about an hour of sun a day in january in northern lapland). At 11 o clock one of the evenings the temperature was -41 C (less than 1 mph wind speed). When you breathe its like tiny bits of glass going into your lungs, within 5 mins your extremities are numb, after an hour outside you can actually feel your body begin to shut down. During the day (if you can even call it that) its about -20 but its surprisingly not that bad. Can't explain it, it just doesnt feel that cold. I think the saving grace is the lack of pretty much any wind, at least while I was there.

If you ever want somewhere different to go skiing I recommend it. Absolutly spectacular place, truely another world. Its not known for its skiing but I can tell you now its the best place I've ever been. This means the slopes aren't jammed and prices are really good (compared to places in europe). I'm luckily enough to have a Finnish friend from university who is from just south of lapland so I will definatly be going again, despite the cold

Ohhhhhhh, and santa lives there

nacho libre

Pangea wrote: »

Where was that Nacho?

Canada.

ciaran67

nacho libre wrote: »

Canada.

Irony of ironies is... we didnt move back to Canada this November cos we didnt want to arrive in winter. I could cry im so cold.

Slidey

Central heating pipes were frozen in my boiler house this morning.

Bloody cold, -12.5 in the car. Ballymote, Sligo

Matt Simis

Slidey wrote: »

Central heating pipes were frozen in my boiler house this morning.

Bloody cold, -12.5 in the car. Ballymote, Sligo

Im having similar issues today too. It was -10 two days ago and -8.6c last night (Athboy, Meath). I have a Well but insulated the Well house and put a 250w thermal bulb on Temp Controlled Plug (these are great, I could only find them in B&Q). Bulb comes on at +2 and below (changed to +3 and below now to get more heat in there). My Well house pipes didnt freeze however on the house side no water. So it must be frozen in the ground after the pump. And there is SFA I can do about buried frozen pipes.

And concurrently, for no obvious reason, my CH water pressure has dropped from 1.1bar to 0.25 bar. Boiler (garage mounted, with regular 80w bulb keeping it warm, changed to a BBQ 600w patio heater for now) still fires up, but this is well below its correct operating pressure.


Im hoping for a couple of hours of positive temps today, my own Weather Station has it hovering around -1.1c at the moment... Met.ie say sub zero in Meath all day...

Biglad

Matt Simis wrote: »

Im having similar issues today too. It was -10 two days ago and -8.6c last night (Athboy, Meath). I have a Well but insulated the Well house and put a 250w thermal bulb on Temp Controlled Plug (these are great, I could only find them in B&Q). Bulb comes on at +2 and below (changed to +3 and below now to get more heat in there). My Well house pipes didnt freeze however on the house side no water. So it must be frozen in the ground after the pump. And there is SFA I can do about buried frozen pipes.

And concurrently, for no obvious reason, my CH water pressure has dropped from 1.1bar to 0.25 bar. Boiler (garage mounted, with regular 80w bulb keeping it warm, changed to a BBQ 600w patio heater for now) still fires up, but this is well below its correct operating pressure.


Im hoping for a couple of hours of positive temps today, my own Weather Station has it hovering around -1.1c at the moment... Met.ie say sub zero in Meath all day...

That 0.25 shouls still be sufficient for your boiler to work bro, sorry to ehar about your frozen pipes, used to happen in our old house, real pain that.

peasant

peasant wrote: »

All sorts of things you take for granted stop working properly ...cars, door hinges, windows, letter boxes ...anything that's outside and has moving parts will be either very stiff or non-functional altogether.

That's the flashing stopped for a while so!

snaps

Already -9c here in Mayo. Looks like last nights -17c here in Foxford good be gone tonight?

Matt Simis

Biglad wrote: »

That 0.25 shouls still be sufficient for your boiler to work bro, sorry to ehar about your frozen pipes, used to happen in our old house, real pain that.

Yeah you are correct, its seemingly "ok" and increasing pressure to .07bar after running a while.

Pipes going to the household water didnt defrost today anyhow.. -8c now at 17:30. High today at 13:30 of +0.1... lame.

Truff Puff

clocked -17 up a hill n North Commemara this am!

thetonynator

Truff Puff wrote: »

clocked -17 up a hill n North Commemara this am!

much snow there?