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Freezing Weather Discussion - Widespread Snow Tonight/Tuesday
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dollydishmop wrote: »Snowing in North Tipp....only lightly, but its settling....first now we've seen here!
Been watching the snow reports around the rest of the country with growing envy!
Is any more due to come our way?
And just as quickly...it stops
Can I have some more for my birthday tomorrow.....pleeease?0 -
Looking at radar, sat pics, temps, etc., I am starting to really worry about prospects for any snow tonight!
Hope to be wrong of course.
To add to this concern, Met E, since lunchtime, have downgraded threat on http://www.meteoalarm.eu/ from orange (warning of snow) at lunchtime now to green - i.e. no warning! No warning on Met E website either.
right now the majority of stations are at or near freezing and that's at the warmest time of the day . there's bound to be a small bit of a warming ahead of the front but with evaportive cooling and temps dropping after nightfall we should still be optimistic of seeing some of the white stuff, not sure about the intensity, the airflow behind looks suitably unstable so we should get a second bite at the cherry come this time tomorrow.0 -
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Figuramatyi wrote: »
I live in a relatively new house - albeit not very new, from the looks, I'd say 15-20 yrs old maybe? -, but it's just as catastrophic as the ones I lived earlier in. I certainly believe that new houses have much better regulations, but in the area where I live, older houses are much more common.
And with the gap around the window/door - I heard this argument, but it's completely wrong. Dampness can only be fought with heat. The only way to dry a room is to heat it (yes, you need to air it sometimes too), If a room becomes cold, it's walls get cold, so the moisture in the air just gets precipitated on the walls. You need to have warm walls, basically
Figuramatyi ventilation is the answer in this country - and unfortunatley unlike the older folk, young people here don't cross ventilate their house by opening a couple of windows & doors everyday - hence the benefit of having a bit of a draught around a window.
If you are renting you should ask for a Building Energy Rating and move to somewhere with a better one. 0 -
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Figuramatyi wrote: »Hey, some thoughts on the effect of this weather on people's lives.
Honestly, Ireland is fully and completely unprepared for even a slightly colder than average winter. I could start with the quality of buildings in general (cardboard houses with no insulation of any kind, paper walls inside etc), continuing at improper and very ineffective heating methods (no central heating almost anywhere???), and finishing at having next to none road care tools and equipment.
In my country, cold is normal (-5 -10 is general), but snow is totally random. Sometimes there are winters with no snow for 2-3 year in a row, sometimes we have 2 feet. But, there are also years with almost no winter (2006/2007 we had +10 +15 degress through the whole winter.
When I first came here I was pretty shocked to see how this country is wasting (in my eye) an INSANE amount of money and energy by heating the outside world basically (since when there is no insulation, this is what you do). Single glazed windows, half inch gaps between door and frame, etc. In my opinion, if the country would spend, let's say 500M EUR on insulating every home in the country, this money would come back in 5 years. Well, 3 years with winters like this one. Not to mention health issues - having a bathroom at 10 degrees in the morning causes lots of problems in your health. When a bathroom is not properly heated (it actually should be the warmest room in the house!!), it gets damp. Damp gets it moulded - again a serious health risk. Having no proper heating in a bathroom was the most shocking thing I experienced when moving here.
Ok, I understand that there are windy, mild winters (like the 2006/2007 one above), where you only need a little heating - but that's deceiving, since because of the wind, less insulated homes cooled down in almost seconds in the wind... even worse than real cold with no winds.
So... I know and fully understand that the current experience of winters (last 20-25 years, with maybe an exception of 1, max 2 winters) does not signal a need for changes in this kind of (lack of) preparation for a winter. But there are more and more upcoming voices saying that cold winters like this can be more and more common in the future. Anyone heard of Joe Bastardi? Not saying I share his ideas, but they are certainly worth a read, at least.
So, about Graces's long post - feeling stranded and helpless is undestandably bad. Still, if you had a home with proper insulation, suitable heating methods, and most importantly - usable infranstructure (!) around your house, you would have no issues. In my country we have snow ploughs cleaning even the most desolate roads, if people live there. Of course we have grit (albeit not very good for the environment, they are). We have gas heating everywhere but the tiniest villages and farms. But most importantly, we have houses made from bricks (98%), and with proper inside and outside insulations. And no, I'm not from Russia, but from Central Europe, where sometimes we have just as mild winters as Ireland
We really only get into trouble when we have something like 1-2 feet of snow, with strong winds, so dunes of 2-3 meters in hight build up blocking roads, and problems only start around -25 degrees. Still at that, no pipes burst (they are insulated), no cars die (de-freezer in the cooling liquid is compulsory), people can get mostly everywhere (winter tyres, not compulsory yet but could be soon), and basically, life cannot stop, even if we have serious winter event only every 5-10 years (which is true).
I'm not trying to say everything works perfectly there (oh, no, very very far from that, but I seriously hope that Ireland learns a lesson from this cold snap, and some of these preparations that I mentioned above will/would be done. Some of these are not even very expensive, but can make a world of difference, and most importantly - as you said - can save lives!
If you feel bad/frustrated about someone, be it for those who don't inform or help people to PREPARE for such kind of events, and not for those who seek a little enjoyment in a beautiful event like snowfall
Sorry for the wall of text
Having read your "wall of text" I would say that your presentation of the type of houses in Ireland is a total misrepresentation in my view. All newer houses are insulated well, at least well in the context of the average winter we get and all houses have central heating. I am not sure what kind of accommodation you have managed to find since you have been here but your view is quite definitely not representative in my view.
Also you state that problems in your country only start at -25 degrees. Would you agree that when you compare average winters, your -25 is in the region of the -10/-12 that we are experiencing in Ireland at the moment?
We cannot prepare every year for what is a once in a lifetime event. Met experts say that this is the most prolonged cold spell since 1963. That is outside my lifetime, I wasn't born then (not far off!!:o, but still) so if we had loads of grit and salt stocked up and not used, if we had 30 inches of insulation in each attic, we would every other year at least, be letting off steam in forums like this, about the Government and local authorities wasting money on road grit and putting us to unnecessary expense by insulating our homes to this extent.
We have to work with what we have on average, and provide for a little harsher by all means but we have to accept that sometimes we will find things a bit harsher, as we are at the moment and work through it ourselves and also help the more vulnerable through it.0 -
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snow ghost wrote: »Figuramatyi wrote: »
Ventilation is the answer in this country - and unfortunatley unlike the older folk, young people here don't cross ventilate their house by opening a couple of windows everyday - hence the benefit of having a bit of a draught around a window.
If you are renting you should ask for a Building Energy Rating and move to somewhere with a better one.
isnt this the law that you must have one if you are selling or renting ???0 -
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snow ghost wrote: »Figuramatyi wrote: »
Ventilation is the answer in this country - and unfortunatley unlike the older folk, young people here don't cross ventilate their house by opening a couple of windows everyday - hence the benefit of having a bit of a draught around a window.
If you are renting you should ask for a Building Energy Rating and move to somewhere with a better one.
Ventilation is needed, but not against the damp. If the air humidity outside is 96%, and it's (say) 8 degrees there, you will never be able to dry out your bathroom by just letting out the air. Why? Because it will cool down to, say, 10 degrees, will have 92% humidity, and moisture will still sit on the walls.
Now, if you heat it up to 20 degrees, the air will be able to hold so much more moisture, that it will simply soak up all the dampness from your walls (so your relative humidity goes way down - I won't give a percentage here but the difference will be considerable). BUT to achieve this, you must HEAT, and you must not allow the bathroom to ventillate constantly.
Trust me0 -
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Having read your "wall of text" I would say that your presentation of the type of houses in Ireland is a total misrepresentation in my view. All newer houses are insulated well, at least well in the context of the average winter we get and all houses have central heating. I am not sure what kind of accommodation you have managed to find since you have been here but your view is quite definitely not representative in my view.
Also you state that problems in your country only start at -25 degrees. Would you agree that when you compare average winters, your -25 is in the region of the -10/-12 that we are experiencing in Ireland at the moment?
We cannot prepare every year for what is a once in a lifetime event. Met experts say that this is the most prolonged cold spell since 1963. That is outside my lifetime, I wasn't born then (not far off!!:o, but still) so if we had loads of grit and salt stocked up and not used, if we had 30 inches of insulation in each attic, we would every other year at least, be letting off steam in forums like this, about the Government and local authorities wasting money on road grit and putting us to unnecessary expense by insulating our homes to this extent.
We have to work with what we have on average, and provide for a little harsher by all means but we have to accept that sometimes we will find things a bit harsher, as we are at the moment and work through it ourselves and also help the more vulnerable through it.
You should really check the insulation requirements, and the average insulation in any countries in Central EU. You'd be surprised
As I said above (twice) it could be me, living in no newer than 10-15 (or more) years old houses). But I see exactly these (and older) types of houses in great abundance. I'll tell you one thing: in my country, the walls between rooms are also made of bricks. Since.... ever. As I said, it's completely different.
Yes, i know and agree that winter median and mean temps are lower in my country in average. However, extreme events do happen. If you prepare for those, you won't have (at least as many) people suffering, like Graces here.
And as a little extra, you save a LOT of money on heating, during most of the year
Edit: There is no such thing as "unnecessary expense by insulating our homes to this extent". However uses this term (ever) is either a politician or just a demagogue 0 -
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Weathercheck wrote: »Just in relation to the cold front.
GFS suggests potential accumulations of upto 10cm in parts by 9am.
Leinster and the Midlands seem to be most at risk from this front.
This is quite a nice chart, but I think it's a gross exaggeration of the snowfall throughout tonight. Hope I'm wrong though...
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Figuramatyi wrote: »snow ghost wrote: »
Ventilation is needed, but not against the damp. If the air humidity outside is 96%, and it's (say) 8 degrees there, you will never be able to dry out your bathroom by just letting out the air. Why? Because it will cool down to, say, 10 degrees, will have 92% humidity, and moisture will still sit on the walls.
Now, if you heat it up to 20 degrees, the air will be able to hold so much more moisture, that it will simply soak up all the dampness from your walls (so your relative humidity goes way down - I won't give a percentage here but the difference will be considerable). BUT to achieve this, you must HEAT, and you must not allow the bathroom to ventillate constantly.
Trust me
Trust me my friend, ventilation is the answer as any older person who grew up in Ireland with only a turf fueled range and persistant damp and rain will tell you. The houses here need an exchange of air daily.:)
BTW, any sign of snow yet in Galway???0 -
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Figuramatyi wrote: »You should really check the insulation requirements, and the average insulation in any countries in Central EU. You'd be surprised
As I said above (twice) it could be me, living in no newer than 10-15 (or more) years old houses). But I see exactly these (and older) types of houses in great abundance. I'll tell you one thing: in my country, the walls between rooms are also made of bricks. Since.... ever. As I said, it's completely different.
Yes, i know and agree that winter median and mean temps are lower in my country in average. However, extreme events do happen. If you prepare for those, you won't have (at least as many) people suffering, like Graces here.
And as a little extra, you save a LOT of money on heating, during most of the year
Edit: There is no such thing as "unnecessary expense by insulating our homes to this extent". However uses this term (ever) is either a politician or just a demagogue
Namecalling and stereotyping is the new way to discuss and debate?0 -
Boy, are you wide of the mark!!:)
But I am a taxpayer and I dont want to be paying for stuff that is going to be wasted 42 years out of 43!
I will resist to comment on what's coming in my mind first, but I hope you DO realize you just said "I don't care about nobody else at all", in a way?
Besides, insulation can be solved with only helping those who are willing to do it themselves. This is also working in my country, but I can also see someone linked a similar scheme that exists here. It's really good, and should be promoted widely. Maybe, from now it will 0 -
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