Met Éireann said the extreme cold will persist into tomorrow, with a further Status Orange warning for low temperatures and ice for 13 counties, before a “steady thaw” begins over the country at the weekend.
The warning for Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Meath, Offaly, Westmeath, Cavan, Monaghan, Galway, Roscommon, Tipperary, will be in effect from 7pm this evening until 8am tomorrow morning.
Met Éireann is warning of extremely cold weather with a widespread severe frost and ice, along with lying snow in some areas and patches of freezing fog also.
Temperatures tonight are expected to dip between -5C and -8C in some areas, Met Éireann forecaster Matthew Martin said.
But, Mr Martin said weather conditions would “gradually improve” this weekend.
“But before that we are expecting a weak band of rain and sleet to move up into some southern counties tomorrow morning,” he said.
“That could well turn to snow for a time over some hills, but it will be the last of the wintry hazards, with a steady thaw then setting in later tomorrow and through the weekend, then by Sunday it will turn much milder,” he added.
Speaking on Today with Claire Byrne, Mr Martin said the “slippery conditions” will persist as the thaw sets in.
Any forecasted rain and sleet, he said, could “freeze on impact and cause hazardous conditions through tomorrow morning”.
“So really it’s not until Sunday where we see a real proper thaw,” he added.
Temperatures reach coldest so far
Met Éireann said the lowest temperature recorded overnight was a provisional record of -8.2C at a climate stations in Granard, Co Longford.
An earlier report from the forecaster noted a low temperature of -7.5C in Mullingar, Co Westmeath.
It said a temperature of -7C was recorded in Athenry, Co Galway, and -6.7C was noted in Oak Park, Co Carlow.
The temperatures recorded by the forecaster mark the the coldest so far since they began to plummet at the weekend.
A Status Orange low temperature and ice warning – which affects Leinster, Munster, Connacht, Co Cavan and Co Monaghan – expired at 11am.
Additionally, a country-wide Status Yellow low temperature and ice warning is in place until midday tomorrow.
‘Focus’ on reconnecting water, power supplies
ESB Networks said that around 500 homes, farms and businesses are awaiting restoration of power.
Crews are working to reconnect supply to impacted customers, it added.
Uisce Éireann said that around 4,500 customers – mainly in Tipperary, Limerick and Kerry – have no water.
The majority of these are expected to have their supply restored by this morning.
Uisce Éireann added that, as the cold snap continues, it expects an increase in the number of weather-related outages.
National Director for Fire and Emergency Management Keith Leonard said the focus is on those people who are still without water and power and getting them reconnected.
Also speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, he said “we’re hopefully moving out of this phase of very severe weather now in the next 24/36 hours.
“The focus remains on that and also just keeping the country moving and trying to make sure that roads are clear and available and that public transport is operating.”
He said the areas worse affected are in north Kerry, north Cork and Limerick.
There is light at the end of the tunnel with conditions improving tomorrow, he said.
“We’re hoping that the power issues will be pretty much resolved I think in the next 24 hours.
“Water, I understand, might take a little bit longer, but by the weekend we would hope to have normal operations across all communities.”
Mr Leonard said that high mountain roads and some of those roads in the most affected areas are still very difficult and there are some unpassable roads.
“But generally speaking now most of the roads are manageable but again with calibrating your speed to the conditions that you find.”
In relation to school closures, he said some schools are still closed but others are delaying opening this morning.
“But again I think that that figure is falling day by day. And again I think we’ll hopefully see normal operations resuming for schools tomorrow.”
On accommodation for rough sleepers and asylum seekers, he said he understands that IPAS is “making huge efforts to try and make sure that everybody can be brought in ,and I know that the DRHE have that app available and have put their winter plans in place to bring in rough sleepers.
“And obviously sometimes the challenge can be to convince rough sleepers to come in in these very difficult and cold conditions,” he said.
“But again, a huge effort has gone into that.”
Warnings in Northern Ireland
In Northern Ireland, a Yellow snow and ice warning – for counties Antrim, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Derry – is in place until 11am.
A Yellow fog alert impacting Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Derry ended at 9am.
The UK Met Office said that areas of freezing fog would make travel conditions difficult in places.
Separate weather alerts are also in place across the UK as people are braced for the mercury to plummet as low as -16C.
Overnight, temperatures fell to as low as -12C at Tulloch Bridge in Scotland, while the temperature dropped below zero across much of England and Wales.
Minimum temperatures of -16C could be reached on tonight, the Met Office said.
