Screwball Weather

pedroThePirate

I was in the bank in Kilkee this morning and a woman
said that this weather was worse than anything in living
memory on and around Loop Head.

I've lived here for nearly fifteen years and it's certainly
my worst winter in Clare. Back in UK, we were used to
this stuff but, hell, I moved here to get away from it !

If this is global warming, I'd hate to see global cooling . . .

Does anyone have any data on past winters ?
Was it ever as bad as this ?

Chris

Clareman

Global warming will actually make Ireland colder, the melting ice caps will affect the north Atlantic current which is the main thing giving us a temperant climate, by pushing it south, we'll get more artic conditions

pedroThePirate

Yeah, I get that, Clareman ! (I'm a physics grad.)
Just seems such a daft expression for us to use over here
when all the evidence points to harder winters . . .

7.45 am in Kilkee and the temp outside is -6.5 C

Merry Christmas, everyone

Chris

ClareVisitor

I think the people who study this kind of thing are moving away from calling it "Global Warming" in favour of the more generic "Climate Change".

CptSternn

There was an article on this last year around this time in one of the local papers which described why the water was freezing.

Basically, when the pipes were laid over 100 years ago it was unheard of for the ground to freeze more than 12 inches, so they laid the pipes at 15 inches, to be safe.

The last two years the ground has frozen solid at 17 inches.

This is because of climate change. The bigger issue is -how are they going to fix this? The only way to really fix it is to put all new water pipes across the country, which is no easy task.

That's just one of many problems which will be facing us - like cars with rear wheel drive (treacherous in wintry conditions, which is why they are not found in countries with this weather), snow tyres, bus/rail services which are equip to run in this weather, etc. to name a few things which will have to be sorted soon enough since it looks like this weather will be here to stay 4 months out of the year.

pedroThePirate

I have been checking all this out.
-
In Sweden, their building regulations state that water mains must
be laid at minimum depth of 1 metre (39").

In Ireland, the building regs state 750mm (30") depth for service mains
into buildings but do not specify the depth for mains pipes installed by
and operated by local authorities. This is at the LA's discretion but there
are guidelines and codes of practice in place.

It seems that the vast majority of the present problems are stemming
from the inadequate depth of service mains into buildings on the
more recent housing developments where, it would appear, corners
have been cut to save money (No real surprises, there, given the
mindset of Ireland's property developers !). It costs three times as
much to excavate a trench to 1 metre as it does for 500mm (Spon's
Architects' and Builders Price Book, 2008) so the savings would have
been tempting.

The residents of Ennis's expanded housing stock are now paying the
price for a developer's greed. Why does this fail to surprise me ?

Chris

dr.fuzzenstein

CptSternn wrote: »

That's just one of many problems which will be facing us - like cars with rear wheel drive (treacherous in wintry conditions, which is why they are not found in countries with this weather), snow tyres, bus/rail services which are equip to run in this weather, etc. to name a few things which will have to be sorted soon enough since it looks like this weather will be here to stay 4 months out of the year.

Well, people will always have cars with rear wheel drive even in countries where you get a lot of snow. The secret is good winter tires and just put one of these in the boot::D



Though it has to be said that most people will have FWD or 4WD's in such areas, but Beemers and Mercs will always be found. You just need winter tires, the radiator and a change of underwear in the glovebox.

CptSternn

pedroThePirate wrote: »

I have been checking all this out.
-
In Sweden, their building regulations state that water mains must
be laid at minimum depth of 1 metre (39").

In Ireland, the building regs state 750mm (30") depth for service mains
into buildings but do not specify the depth for mains pipes installed by
and operated by local authorities. This is at the LA's discretion but there
are guidelines and codes of practice in place.

It seems that the vast majority of the present problems are stemming
from the inadequate depth of service mains into buildings on the
more recent housing developments where, it would appear, corners
have been cut to save money (No real surprises, there, given the
mindset of Ireland's property developers !). It costs three times as
much to excavate a trench to 1 metre as it does for 500mm (Spon's
Architects' and Builders Price Book, 2008) so the savings would have
been tempting.

The residents of Ennis's expanded housing stock are now paying the
price for a developer's greed. Why does this fail to surprise me ?

Chris

I wouldn't automatically blame developers, although I wouldn't give them a pass either. The issue is the pipes were laid over a century ago - therefore the building standards in place today were not the same. That doesn't mean developers didn't cut corners, but it does share the blame a bit. If you want to see where the developers are to blame, just look at the flats behind Lidl's - built on a flood plain that floods every time it rains hard. This issue was brought up even before they built those flats, yet they still got planning permission and no one said boo about it.

pedroThePirate

CptSternn wrote: »

. . . The issue is the pipes were laid over a century ago - therefore the building standards in place today were not the same.

But those pipes aren't the ones which are freezing, CptSternn !
Old street mains which have been in place since Eamonn DeValera was
just a twinkle in daddy DeValera's eye aren't the problem. Most of
those were laid with the same codes of practice used in UK at a similar
period and they seem (according to CCC's statistics) to be holding up
pretty well. The issues are all about the feeder mains on to new estates
for which we can't blame anyone but the present time developers and
councillors.

CptSternn wrote: »

. . . just look at the flats behind Lidl's - built on a flood plain that floods every time it rains hard. This issue was brought up even before they built those flats, yet they still got planning permission and no one said boo about it.

Same old story. Money changes hands. Italy may have invented corrupt
politics but it took Ireland to transform it into an art form . . .

Chris