Spring has sprung yet another snow surprise
IT wasn’t quite as ferocious as the Beast from the East but a second deluge of snow for March caused more chaos across several counties yesterday.
St Patrick’s weekend events and sports fixtures had to be cancelled and some travel disturbance was also caused.
In hillier areas, many suffering the effects of a boozy St Patrick’s Day, however, were able to blow off the cobwebs on the slopes – with the little ones more than happy to take advantage of the second snowy spring surprise.
For rugby die-hards, the icy blast from Siberia snowed on their victory parade for Ireland’s Grand Slam heroes, as the Six Nations champions’ homecoming hurrah at the Aviva Stadium had to be cancelled.
A Met Éireann orange alert – the second most severe weather warning – remained in place for Dublin, Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Louth, Wexford, Wicklow, Meath and Waterford until 6pm yesterday.
Forecasters had issued the alert from 3am yesterday.
Motorists, pedestrians and cyclists were warned to take extra care but there was minimal public transport disruption.
The downside was felt mostly by those revellers from near and far who had wanted to continue the St Patrick’s celebrations over the bank holiday weekend.
The organisers of t he St Patrick’s Festival said the Big Day Out event in Merrion Square in Dublin had to be cancelled due to the weather.
The snowfall also affected yesterday’s GAA fixture list with many Allianz League games postponed until today.
Race meetings at Limerick and Navan were also abandoned.
Forecasters had warned of significant accumulations of snow in places and ‘some drifting’. Met Éireann also had a yellow alert in place for the whole weekend – warning of very cold conditions with wind chill and icy patches. That alert is in place until 9am this morning.
‘We had heavy snowfall on Saturday night and into Sunday morning. This snow moved in over a good part of Leinster,’ a Met Éireann forecaster said.
‘There was a significant amount of snowfall in a number of areas.
‘ There was 3cm of s now reported at Dublin Airport, and 5-6cm in a good part of Leinster.
‘We’ll have more snow in Leinster and Munster overnight.’
Today is expected to be mostly dry and the forecaster said higher temperatures are expected by the middle of the week.
Motorists, however, are being advised to continue to take care on the roads. Gardaí have warned that many roads are slippery and with the low temperatures there may be black ice in places.
AA Roadwatch echoed that warning, saying some main routes were down to one lane of traffic due to the snow, and that some secondary roads were treacherous, especially around areas of high ground.
Dublin Bus said the majority of its services were operating as normal but some routes were curtailed. Bus Éireann said that there was some disruption to services in the east yesterday.
Meanwhile, Iarnród Éireann said all services were running, but some delays were likely.
At Dublin Airport, f l i ghts resumed following a 40-minute suspension early yesterday to clear snow from the runway.
Some 101 beds for rough sleepers are in use in Dublin this weekend due to the weather.
‘There was 5-6cm in some parts’ Some secondary roads treacherous