Gale-force winds and up to 7cm of snow expected in Carlow and Kilkenny

Temperatures are low and snow looks set to hit Carlow and Kilkenny later today.

Two yellow weather warnings come into effect locally this morning at 8am.

Gale-force winds are expected alongside up to 7cm of snow by 8am tomorrow (Friday).

With that, a number of people are issuing advice, with a multi-agency approach to action across both counties.

But, as always, we all have a part to play.

The Weathercrew

Will it snow where you are tomorrow?
If so, what time and how much? ☃️
The animation below runs from midnight tonight to Fri afternoon.
Blue/yellow/wine colours = rain
White/green = snow
The heaviest snow will be over high ground in Munster & south Leinster.#sneachta pic.twitter.com/FQHKApPcW9

— Met Éireann (@MetEireann) February 10, 2021

Niall Dollard of Kilkenny Weather has been telling KCLR News “A rain belt is moving up from South West and as it comes in over the country you’d expect it to turn to snow, coming into Kilkenny maybe about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, around that time, and that is gradually expected to accumulate”.

He adds “Now it won’t be major, dramatic accumulations but all through the evening we expect to see a build-up of snow and that’ll last most of the night”.

And it seems, the white stuff could linger in a couple of spots as Mr Dollard outlines “On high ground, especially around Castlecomer plateau, Blackstairs and over towards the Wicklow side of Carlow, snow could hold on for longer in those areas”.

Local updates too via Carlow Weather

Council Response

The local authorities in both counties have plans in place for such weather events.

Smaller local routes are expected to be treacherous tonight and tomorrow morning.

Kilkenny Senior Roads Engineer Seamus Kavanagh says “The P1, P2 and P3 routes, they are on our website so if people can look at Kilkenny County Council website they’ll see where the trucks go on the nights, on Thursday night, we’re also working very closely with the HSE, the Gardaí and the Civil Defence, in particular, the HSE with the vaccination centres and the testing centres and the hospitals so we’ll be keeping an eye on those areas and make sure that there’s no hold-up in those areas”.

He adds “I suppose the message we really want to get out there is to stay safe, if people have to travel if they could use the P1, P2 or P3 routes, they’re on our website, and give plenty of time if they have to travel between Thursday and Friday morning it looks like after that it potentially could turn on Friday to rain, but we don’t know yet so we’ll just keep an eye on the weather”.

Mr Kavanagh also says “So if anyone has an essential journey to make on Thursday night or Friday morning just be wary that the roads will be slippy and there could be a considerable amount of snow, we will be out and will be gritting and will have the snow ploughs as well but we’re uncertain on the volume as yet, 5 to 7cm but the 7cm could be on higher ground, but just that people be wary of the prevailing weather conditions”.

Details of Kilkenny County Council’s Winter Ready Plan and priority routes for gritting can be viewed here

Carlow County Council‘s Director of Services Padraig O’Gorman says “The main roads, the priority one routes and then our P2 routes as well, will be gritted over the next three or four days so those roads should be fine at the moment there’s good dry, underlying conditions so the roads are not slippy because there hasn’t been rain, that may change as the sleet and snow arrive that will make for some hazardous conditions especially on local roads”.

He also says if there’s any essential journey you need to make try and do it this morning before the worst arrives, telling KCLR News “What we’d be asking people is to you prepare for it, get whatever groceries, medical supplies that you may need and over the next 24 to 48 hours we’d be asking people as much as possible that they would confine themselves to home”.

And Mr O’Gorman adds “As you know we’ve had issues with people going up onto Mount Leinster and the Nine Stones area and certainly we would be strongly advising people to stay away from that area during this period as approach roads and access to it will be extremely hazardous”.

Garda Message

Gardaí too have issued a number of weather-related warnings.

Carlow Superintendent Aidan Brennan says “Temperatures are very, very low at the moment and will remain so over the next couple of days, there is snowfall expected as well and it has fallen already in parts of the country so I suppose first and foremost it could leave driving conditions very dangerous and we’d be asking people to take great care on the roads and if they are making an essential journey to make sure they’re prepared in advance and that their car and their tyres and all that is in good working order”.

He has this plea “With temperatures so cold, check-in on neighbours and make sure they’re okay, particularly elderly or vulnerable, you could slip on a slippery footpath outside your house in these type of conditions so it’s always good neighbourly advice to check in on your neighbours”.

Supt Brennan reminds us that “We are still in Level 5 lockdown and journeys should only be essential, so travelling for the purpose of if there’s better snow somewhere else, that would not be an essential journey regardless of how tempting it might be so we would ask people please to remain at home, to abide by the lockdown, abide by the guidelines and stay at home, stay safe, put a good fire on and stay warm”.

And he’s warning against reoccurrences of trips to local beauty spots as happened during the last snowfall when roads ended up being blocked and traffic backed-up, saying “We’ve had that a little bit now and we want to discourage that in so far as we can for two reasons; one it contravenes the Level 5 lockdown and secondly the roads are dangerous and we don’t want any unnecessary journeys made, the last point I would make is we have issued fines on the spot, we will issue them again if we fine a breach of the lockdown, people have been well warned so if they do meet us and they are outside their 5km zone they can expect a fine to be imposed”.

Be Winter Ready

For more advice on dealing with adverse weather conditions click here