A council gritter gets to work on the N13 between Letterkenny and Ballybofey.
A CONSIDERABLE drop in temperatures has led to further weather warnings for Donegal with forecasts for several centimetres of snow with strong gusts of wind.
Speaking to the Donegal News, Kenneth McDonagh of the Donegal Weather Channel said we could be in for some of the most severe weather this winter.
“Staring on Wednesday temperatures will start to drop of as the first of the Arctic Conditions will hit Ireland, this is due to a low pressure with a cold front which will pass Donegal and Northern Ireland.
“By Wednesday morning snow will have started falling in the Northwest and while it does look as much of Ireland will see accumulations of snow on low ground, the biggest amounts will be in the Northwest. We could see up to 30cm of snow over hills and mountains.”
Mr McDonagh continued: “Thursday day time into Thursday night and Friday morning will see further heavy falls of snow with further accumulations leading to massive problems on our road networks and some Airports.
“By Friday winds will have turned northerly with very cold temperatures by day and especially night time with a very cold wind-chill factor. More wintry showers of snow will continue to affect many areas on Friday with strong northerly winds gusting up to 100km/hr at times.”
Moving into the weekend, Mr McDonagh said that winds will still be northerly and quite gusty reaching around 60km/hr to 100km/hr.
“Temperatures by day will struggle to get over 3c with temperatures at night around -5c and as lows as -8c or lower in snow covered areas. It also looks as if there will be further falls of heavy snow especially over northern parts of Ireland for Saturday and Sunday.”
He concluded: “After the weekend winds look set to die down with Ireland remaining in a northerly cold air pattern with a increasing chance of a major snow event. This is due to further weak low pressures moving in from the North and tracking south over Ireland bringing with it further heavy falls of snow due to the cold air over the country.”
“All world weather models that run every few hours each day are all agreeing to this set up which is quite a rare thing and is why there are strong chances of this cold Arctic air moving in this week.”
Meanwhile Met Éireann has issued a status yellow snow and ice warning for Donegal. It began at 6am on Wednesday morning and will be in place until 11pm on Thursday.
The Road Safety Authority is advising all motorists to take extra care.
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