Editorial: Starting the new year with a bang
Happy New Year everyone!
I’d like to wish our readers all the best for the coming year and hope ye all enjoyed a great Christmas.
I certainly did as the weather was fantastic! I can’t remember another Christmas holidays that was so dry, so mild and so bright. It meant we could spend as much time as we wanted outside which was great.
Christmas is a lot more enjoyable when everyone isn’t cooped up inside going a bit stir crazy!
That mild dry weather came to a shuddering halt on Sunday evening when it rained and then became very cold.
Everyone once in a while, we get timely reminders about how unprepared we are for icy conditions. The road conditions on Monday weren’t great and got worse as the morning went on and some of the ice melted on top of other ice. Opening schools at 10.30am meant that conditions on footpaths were worse then than it had been at 9am. That was unfortunate.
Tuesday was morning was much worse again with conditions far worse across the county. Black ice was widespread and there were crashes, both minor and serious all over the place.
The Macroom Bypass on the N22 in Cork closed in both directions on Tuesday morning due to a number of traffic collisions. Gardaí reported that multiple collisions occurred on the bypass in the morning causing the closure. One of the incidents involved a truck.
It seems that rain on Tuesday morning froze creating black ice. Cork County Council reported that ice formed on some roads that were treated the previous night. The N22 would certainly have been treated as it is a priority route.
Roads in North Cork and East Cork were very badly affected too. Cork County Council reported that road surface temps reported as low as -1°C recorded at roads from the R667 in Mitchelstown to the N22 at Ballyvourney and as far west as the N71 at Leap.
No matter how modern and sophisticated we become, we remain at the mercy of the weather!
And today we are set for more snow and ice potentially!
Met Éireann has issued a status yellow snow and rain warning for Cork and a number of other counties in the south of Ireland as Storm Goretti hits Ireland.
Storm Goretti will bring rain, heavy at times, which will turn to sleet and snow in places on Thursday afternoon, particularly at elevation. Met Éireann says snow accumulations are possible too.
Potential impacts include hazardous travelling conditions, spot flooding, poor visibility and icy patches. The warning is valid from midday today, Thursday to 8pm tonight.
In case you thought Met Éireann were getting fancy with their storm names, this one was named by French forecaster Meteo France. Let’s hope there’s a lot less crashes and danger this time.