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| Ryanair flight grounded at Tegel Airpor, Berlin. Pic Spiegel. |
Travel in and to Northern Ireland is still being affected by the severe winter weather, reports BBC NI. Northern Ireland's airports are open, as are Dublin, Cork and Shannon, but are expecting a high number of cancellations and delays. The Roads Service warned that driving conditions were still hazardous with overnight snow leaving a risk of ice.
- City of Derry Airport is open and operational. However further flight disruption is possible due to poor weather at the destination airports in the UK, reports Highland Radio.
- Bus Eireann said most of its services were operating as usual with some delays and diversions, but services cancelled included buses from Dublin to Derry, Cavan to Athboy and Drogheda to Donore, reports the Sunday Independent. Dublin Bus said its services were operating as normal, while Irish Rail said full services were operating, including mainline raid and Dart. The Luas in Dublin also said it was operating normally, as were Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports.
- EMAIL SENT IN TO IWO BY ROB: I take the sea temperatures at Dun Laoghaire harbour, the 40foot swimmers area and and Sandycove. I report the values into Met Eireann, (as a voluntary observer). Maybe a warning should be put out about the unusually low values that are being recorded currently - the lowest for at least 20 years or more at Christmas. This could be dangerous for the 40foot Christmas swimmers. The normal value for Christmas day is 8.5C. Currently it is 5C in the deeper water off the 40foot and as low as 3C in Sandycove harbour and Seapoint, but after such severe frosts as we are experiencing it could be lower in these shallower waters. Even experienced swimmer stay in for just a minute or two! People should not be misled by the SSTs in the Irish Sea which are currently between 9 and 10C. Last year it was cold too but not so low, at 7C.
- Thousands more Christmas travellers were battling to save their holiday plans today as snow and ice continued to cause havoc at airports and on the roads, reports The Daily Mail. Heathrow Airport - where temperatures plunged to -5.2C overnight - has cancelled all arrivals and only a few planes are due to fly out, piling on more misery after its closure yesterday.
- The Courtmacsherry Lifeboat was launched last night to go to the aid of a vessel , which got into difficulty off the Old Head of Kinsale. MORE from Cork’s 96FM
- SPORT: The two race meetings scheduled for Sunday in Ireland, in Thurles and Navan, both failed their morning inspections, meaning there is no racing in the UK or Ireland. MORE from Setanta Sports.
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| Killargue, Co Leitrim this morning. Pic by Joseph Hunt |
- The Irish League programme faces further disruption with the freezing weather expected to remain in Northern Ireland until Wednesday evening. MORE from the BBC
- I take the sea temperatures at Dun Laoghaire harbour, the 40foot swimmers area and and Sandycove. I report the values into Met eireann, (as a voluntary observer). Maybe a warning should be put out about the unusually low values that are being recorded currently - the lowest for at least 20 years or more at Christmas. This could be dangerous for the 40foot Christmas swimmers. The normal value for Christmas day is 8.5C. Currently it is 5C in the deeper water off the 40foot and as low as 3C in Sandycove harbour and Seapoint, but after such severe frosts as we are experiencing it could be lower in these shallower waters. Even experienced swimmer stay in for just a minute or two! People should not be misled by the SSTs in the Irish Sea which are currently between 9 and 10C. Last year it was cold too but not so low, at 7C.
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| Sunrise in Co Donegal. Pic Matt Britton |
- Blizzards continued to batter Germany Friday as the cold-weather front "Petra" brought highways to a halt, closed airports and caused chilly mayhem across the country, according to Spiegel.
- Steady rain and snow blanket Northern California – Reno Gazette Journal
- U.S. wheat futures tumbled Tuesday as weather conditions around the globe temporarily eased concerns over supplies, reports The Wall Street Journal. Leading prices lower were forecasts for less rain in growing areas of eastern Australia, where recent downpours have halted the harvest and hurt the quality of wheat still in the fields. The Middle East experienced favourable weather conditions as well.
- Traumatised survivors of a refugee boat wreck off Australia held a private vigil behind bars for the 30 people who died, as debate raged over Canberra's policy on boat people arriving from Asia, reports AFP. Police divers trawled undersea caves along the coastline of remote Christmas Island but found no further bodies from Wednesday's disaster, in which a rickety boat crowded with up to 100 Iranian, Iraqi and Kurdish asylum seekers was dashed against sharp rocks.
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| Spare a thought! Pic by Anne Labrosse |
