Severe Weather Snow / Ice Weds 28 FEB ( Onwards ) ** READ MOD NOTE POST#1**

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

The remnants of the cold air are still with us waiting to clear north. Just enough that a little more sleet and snow developing than anticipated along that front moving north over the southern half of the country at the moment. Perhaps a bit of a top up on current accumulations of snow for inland locations.

We just got a bit of freezing rain from the edge of it earlier

Pauliedragon wrote: »

Theres been a lot of bored people the last couple of days. Note to all the midwives, don't look for time off around late November I see a big spike in the birthrate in parts of the country.

The newborn baby girls will be called Emma, the boys, Beast.

wakka12 wrote: »

Would I be right in saying this event would be exceptional in any country on earth? I doubt theres any urban area in the nordic or east european nations or russia or canada or usa that deal with the level of snow some inland leinster counties did in such a small timeframe

I was in Stockholm for this:
https://www.thelocal.se/20161110/stockholm-just-set-a-new-snow-record

I got up in the morning and a Swedish colleague rang me advising me to take the metro instead of a taxi. Got to a client site and the most anyone was late for a workshop was 20 minutes. Took the Arlanda express on plowed lines and got to the airport on time.

There was constant snow and my plane needed a second deicing but got away just 55 minutes late and made my connecting flight home in Frankfurt.

It’s all relative to climate and infrastructure, and many people were caught out, but they’re well prepared to carry on within the city because of metro and the airport being equipped to manage without too many cancelled flights.

I was like a gom in work shoes sliding around in flat soles with wet socks but even I got there

Yes, thank you to the experts on here who called the whole thing early! Made for an extremely stress-free couple of days for our household as we had fridge and presses full, litres of water and candles on standby in case we needed them (we didn't) and extra bags of logs, briquettes and firelighters to last us the week.

Because of the prior warning given here, I was able to shop leisurely for supplies last Saturday and Sunday and we didn't have to leave the house once since Tuesday (we did go out for walks, but all journeys were made because we wanted to) We had lovely food and an abundance of warmth each evening and we were really able to relax.

Even this morning when everyone was digging themselves out of the snow to get down to the shops to replenish stocks, we still didn't have to go anywhere.

It's been great, but it wouldn't have been had I not been checking in here, so thank you all!

I had dry aged steaks for a dinner tonight. Left overs from shopping earlier this week

Preparation is everything!

sryanbruen wrote: »

Don't forget that we have the Canadian Warming now to impact the troposphere - as well as a third warming spike that occurred on Tuesday.

We already have intense blocking in place so the impacts are going to be very interesting.

I wonder why the ecm was showing the pv reorganising earlier on then. I hope we get one more easterly blast- a long shot, i know. I miss the ice days and seeing everything white. Maybe if i had witnessed as much as some people here had, i might think differently:pac:, though. I really hope you're right about low solar activity meaning we will see severe cold outbreaks sooner rather than later in the future. Although i doubt we will see anything quite like the last few days ever again in Ireland.

wakka12 wrote: »

Would I be right in saying this event would be exceptional in any country on earth? I doubt theres any urban area in the nordic or east european nations or russia or canada or usa that deal with the level of snow some inland leinster counties did in such a small timeframe

Well based on the five winters I spent in Seattle there were two major snow storms that were equal or worse than the last few days. One dropped a foot of snow downtown, a few feet in the outer suburbs and more in the foothills of the Cascades. Stayed on the ground for three weeks and wind chill got down to -20C some nights. The other was a hit and run storm of about a foot of snow. Both had some serious drifts. Not unusual for that area and pretty trivial compared to what they get in the High Plains and Mid West. Last year I was able to help a friend navigate through a big storm that hit Minnesota by watching the webcams on the snowplows and telling her by text which freeways were still open and plowed. That storm dumped at up to a rate of almost a foot per hour at some places for over a day. It was a blizzard so most of it ended up elsewhere. Probably Lake Michigan.

In the Pacific Northwest the locals just go through the snow routine, streets on steep hills close, people clear their drives and sidewalks and after the first day after the main fall life just goes on. For really big falls streets like the CounterWeight on Queen Anne Hill get turned into informal downhill ski runs. Fun to watch.

I was in Ireland for the '82 snow. Dug my dads car out a six foot drift at Dublin Airport. 1982 was actually more impressive than this storm. Faster, more unexpected. Missed 2010, was in California. But due to good timing got to see this storm a few miles from where I saw 1982. The sea effect snow was impressive. The blizzard last night was really impressive. It was fun standing on the beach in 50mph plus winds leaning into the wind watching the snow swirl around. By good fortune I had my Seattle winter gear here so I was warm and cozy while out and about. Actually a wind chill of -14C when the air temperature is -2C is quite pleasant compared to a wind chill of -14C when the air temp is -12C. The air temp never got low enough during this storm to be physical painful to breath or to burn the skin. So when properly dressed it was a very enjoyable experience to be out experiencing the storm. If it had hit in January it would have been more disruptive than 1982, at least in the eastern half of the country snowed under in '82. But as its March the snow is disappearing very fast. So more of a hit and run storm. But saying that the '82 snow hit on a Friday and by Tuesday things had already started getting back to normal again.

As the Norwegians say, there is no such thing as bad weather - just the wrong clothes.

nacho libre wrote: »

I wonder why the ecm was showing the pv reorganising earlier on then. I hope we get one more easterly blast- a long shot, i know. I miss the ice days and seeing everything white. Maybe if i had witnessed as much as some people here had, i might think differently:pac:, though. I really hope you're right about low solar activity meaning we will see severe cold outbreaks sooner rather than later in the future. Although i doubt we will see anything quite like the last few days ever again in Ireland.

I've definitely had my fix for this winter now, any more cold and snow would inevitably pale in comparison so I'd far prefer some nice Spring warmth over a prolonged spell of 5C days and a couple of centimetres of overnight slush.

This has definitely reignited my enthusiasm for the weather in this country though, I've found a lot of the 'big' events in recent years to be huge letdowns and the constant westerly snow events just don't really interest me so to actually have something exceed even my most optimistic expectations was amazing to see.

piplip87 wrote: »

Stockholm more than likely has infrastructure clearing equipment that is a good investment due to to frequency of snow there.

Would such an investment be value for money here, where major snow events happen maybe once a decade ? IMO you cannot compare Ireland with any snowy nation.

I think the uselessness of snow infrastructure in ireland is over exaggerated, I think a few snow ploughs would be well worth the investment..there is on average probably disruptive snow every 4-5 years and it costs a lot to the economy to have a country come to standstill and I think costs more than the investment in snow removal infrastructure

Cork Boy 53 wrote: »

I was only posting what she said on RTE. Apparently not the case.

Couldn't have been RTE if it was metric

degsie wrote: »

Couldn't have been RTE if it was metric

It was RTE and all general weather measurements given by ME are metric;

exceptions are height in feet for aviation

and wind speed in knots for sea forecasts.

Any other exceptions, anyone?

Why is everyone claiming the 1982 temperature figure was wrong, it is right there on the met.ie website
Lowest grass minimum temperature:-19.6°C at Glasnevin, Dublin on 12th January 1982

1982 had it all. No real warning and no preparation, heavy snow for 24 hours then a serious freeze with canals and lakes frozen, á la 2010 and then quite a quick thaw after a week.

wakka12 wrote: »

I think the uselessness of snow infrastructure in ireland is over exaggerated, I think a few snow ploughs would be well worth the investment..there is on average probably disruptive snow every 4-5 years and it costs a lot to the economy to have a country come to standstill and I think costs more than the investment in snow removal infrastructure

Yes but you know I genuinely think a lot of us actually like the 'mad weather, what's gonna happen, day off work' excitement in this country, it's in the Irish veins! 😄 If we were too organised with ploughs etc. We wouldn't have these great threads! We like weather drama.....a lot! We love giving out about it all but really we're only wish in for it 😜

wakka12 wrote: »

I think the uselessness of snow infrastructure in ireland is over exaggerated, I think a few snow ploughs would be well worth the investment..there is on average probably disruptive snow every 4-5 years and it costs a lot to the economy to have a country come to standstill and I think costs more than the investment in snow removal infrastructure

In fairness, I also think the failure of our snow removal infrastructure and preparation infrastructure is overstated too. My wife's German, she said that the clearance of the roads here is pretty much the same as what she'd expect in Germany - and to be clear we walked from our residential street in Cabra, down to Connaught Street, Prospect Road, North Circular, Cabra Road. Of those, our street was in an awful state, no clearance at all, but all of the other roads were great - certainly there was snow still pilled around parked cars, but the lanes of the road were completely clear and ice/snow free. It was the same over the last couple of days.

So we've obviously had a fleet of gritters and maybe even ploughs doing their jobs constantly on these main arteries. This is exactly what my wife says happens in Germany - they don't have any authorities clearing side streets either.

The one thing they do have is local laws which enforce self-cleanup. So you have to sweep at the very least the front pavement outside your house, but in some places you also have to help sweep the roads. In the region she's from, you'd be fined if you hadn't done it before 9am, every day! I know the same is also true in particular US cities and various other countries too.

But the question is whether this is the right idea in countries and areas where you don't have regular snowfalls. For one, this forces everyone to purchase snow clearing equipment that they might never need, and it's also just a tremendous shift in behaviour that would be really difficult to enforce.