weather warning (1st March 2018) - were you affected by it?

Andy From Sligo

Schools shut, Businesses shutting up early , people told not to venture out after 4PM was the weather warning for the Sligo area over the top?

did you heed the warning and stay in? , did the place where you work shut up early today?

Did it affect you in any way? - havent we been down this road with storm Ophelia?, we were warned it was going to get quite bad ... but it turned out it wasnt really that bad and that the storm a few days later turned out to be much worse than ophelia

I could have put this in weather on boards but i didnt know how the rest of the country is at the moment ... but all I can see with the Sligo area is that maybe it was all blown out of proportion (although of course it could change in the night here) but if anything the snow seems to be thawing, is not as bad and around 4am when we were supposed to hunker down and stay inside an not venture out I would say it was as calm as anything outside!

Dr Devious

I think all the forecasts made it quite clear that the north west would be the least affected by the weather, and the 4 people killed during storm Ophelia hardly thought the warnings were over the top, and it too was forecast mainly for the east and south of the country. Maybe next time when they forecast bad weather you should make a bee line for the centre of the storm to avoid disappointment.

Mint Sauce

Was always off today anyway, and the shut down did not really effect me. Whilst I believed the NW would escape the worst, and we could still get some snow accumulations tonight, was still surprised to see this mornings fall.

Decided to go out early anyway, just incase there was bad weather and was glad I did. Even at 11am there was a very reduced stock of fresh food and dairy in tescos. Weather that was people stocking up, none deliveries, or a combo of both, not sure.

Dont blame the Goverment for issuing warnings, in parts of the east, it has not stopped snowing since this morning, Knock is not even opening tomorrow, as all RyanAir, Aerlingus, and Flybe have canceled them. In the UK people were stranded on one of the Motorways in Scotland for 16/17 hours last night, plus for a long period in the North of England. At least 3 have also died in the UK in the last 24hrs as a result of the weather. If we had only half the problems the UK have faced, and there was no warning, there would have been up roar as well.

Andy From Sligo

Dr Devious wrote: »

I think all the forecasts made it quite clear that the north west would be the least affected by the weather, and the 4 people killed during storm Ophelia hardly thought the warnings were over the top, and it too was forecast mainly for the east and south of the country. Maybe next time when they forecast bad weather you should make a bee line for the centre of the storm to avoid disappointment.

I am not looking for sensationalism - I am actually glad it hasnt been as bad as i was thinking - I am just saying the *whole* of the country was put on Red Alert and told it would be severe after 4PM - Leo V did not say "parts of the country" need to heed the warning , he said in his address Nationwide .

I think the red for Sligo at 4pm was over the top today people have took action today, things have been cancelled - shops have closed up early .. to what really at the moment for this area today should not have no more than 'yellow Warning'

T-Bird

Better the warning than not and to be safe. The only downside I suppose could be the cry wolf syndrome, people might not take too much heed to the next one and..... Got into work this morning and was giving out with the others that we should have been told to stay home lol. Ah, we got home at lunchtime and didn’t have to take a 1/2 day for it.

I got up a few times last night to look out the window to see if there was any snow and was disappointed each time. There was only swirls very light snow being blown by the wind.

Its good business for the local shops so there is a positive.

Mint Sauce

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

I am not looking for sensationalism - I am actually glad it hasnt been as bad as i was thinking - I am just saying the *whole* of the country was put on Red Alert and told it would be severe after 4PM - Leo V did not say "parts of the country" need to heed the warning , he said in his address Nationwide .

I think the red for Sligo at 4pm was over the top today people have took action today, things have been cancelled - shops have closed up early .. to what really at the moment for this area today should not have no more than 'yellow Warning'

I think 4pm was for the whole country, to allow people to get home in time, etc. Not sure it meant that the entire country was going to get battered bang on 4pm. If he had said Cork 4pm, Limerick 5pm, Dublin 6pm, etc etc, and one of them got it half an hour ealier, that would have not been right either. we are not a country that is prepared, or can afford to be prepared annually for a once every 5-6 year event. So caution is sometimes the next best thing.

T-Bird

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

I am not looking for sensationalism - I am actually glad it hasnt been as bad as i was thinking - I am just saying the *whole* of the country was put on Red Alert and told it would be severe after 4PM - Leo V did not say "parts of the country" need to heed the warning , he said in his address Nationwide .

I think the red for Sligo at 4pm was over the top today people have took action today, things have been cancelled - shops have closed up early .. to what really at the moment for this area today should not have no more than 'yellow Warning'

Hindsight is always very good. But they said it was unprecedented and didn’t know what was going to happen.

It was funny though on RTE when they had all the reporters around the county giving updates and the Sligo one had I think 2 specs of snow during her stint and completely clear behind her.

Andy From Sligo

T-Bird wrote: »

Better the warning than not and to be safe. The only downside I suppose could be the cry wolf syndrome.....

thinking the same - of course it is better to be warned on the other hand I know (for this area anyway) how people were (not angry, I dont know the proper word) about the warning given out for Ophelia and cancelling stuff and saying how it wasnt that bad really and then a couple of days later there was a stronger wind that caused more damage than opelia did

Andy From Sligo

people (well some) can still be good at making up their own mind ( we had to before these all these coloured warnings came in and the names given)

even after the warning from our beloved warning about the whole country being in lockdown (that was TV and radio news talk by the way on it) - there were still people out here jogging/driving/walking out in it after 4pm - well here they were.

Andy From Sligo

12 o'clock - been snowing where I am for the last hour and a bit. Nothing wild but settling still if it snows all night now non-stop there will be quite a fair bit of accumulation .

no wind though, no blizzard, no drifting snow , and the snow is light snow, not thick snow.

be surprising to see what tomorrow holds. I think the red warning ends here at 6am .. and then they will re-evaluate.

sligojoek

It was great. I had the road to myself this morning and again this evening. I was driving around town between 6.30 to 7. It was like xmas eve. Streets were nearly deserted.

Andy From Sligo

God, I'd say the shops too a bit of a hit there shutting up early on thursday and then closed for friday like that though didnt they, and in all fairness I know hindsight is a great thing - but we got off so light in Sligo that I think they could have carried on alright.

Rodin

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

people (well some) can still be good at making up their own mind ( we had to before these all these coloured warnings came in and the names given)

even after the warning from our beloved warning about the whole country being in lockdown (that was TV and radio news talk by the way on it) - there were still people out here jogging/driving/walking out in it after 4pm - well here they were.

Took a run up Knocknarea myself around 5, with all the shops and business closed.
Was grand.

Nothing on the weather forecasts I saw suggested the northwest would have problems on Thursday so as an adult I made up my own mind.