Temperatures set to plummet overnight, here's what you need to know
Widespread frost and ice is expected to envelop the county tonight with temperatures forecast to plummet to -4 degrees.
A Status Yellow snow-ice warning for Ireland is in place until Saturday and it's expected to remain very cold for the remainder of the week.
Frost will set in quickly after dark this evening, becoming severe, with fairly widespread ice. Met Eireann is reporting that mist and fog will form in places, with some freezing fog. Becoming breezy and rather cloudy later, which should help to clear some of the fog and frost. Some rain becoming heavy will develop in the south before dawn, with sleet or hill snow in places. Lowest temperatures -2 to -4 degrees.
Tomorrow (Thursday) will see a wintry mix of rain, sleet and snow will move in accompanied by strong easterly winds. Significant accumulations of snow are possible on high ground and with some accumulations to lower-levels at times.
See Meath County Council's Gritting Map here (and the priority routes)
Meath County Council says that despite the resources that are applied to providing the winter service, ice-free roads cannot be guaranteed. The motorist should remember the following:
- Approximately 85% of roads are NOT routinely salted.
- In Ireland there are a high proportion of marginal nights when temperatures are very close to zero. This makes it more difficult to accurately predict frost than in colder countries. As a consequence Met Eireann can only guarantee 85% accuracy in their forecasts.
- It can take up to 3 hours to salt a route, so any journey may start or end on an untreated section of the route.
- In heavy rain, salt can be washed away and the wet surface may subsequently freeze if the temperature falls below zero.
- In cases of extended severe weather events, the network salted may have to be reduced to Priority 1 routes.
Meath County Council provides the following winter service:
24/7 monitoring of road conditions from the middle of October until the end of April, using detailed predictions provided by Met Eireann, roadside weather stations, and ice prediction software.
A fleet of 10 dedicated spreaders is used to spread salt on a strategic network of over 610 kilometers of Priority 1 and 2 roads whenever road frosts are forecast. This network is detailed in the map above.
10 lorry-mounted snow ploughs for use during significant snow/sleet conditions.
M1 (Dublin-Belfast), M2 (Ashbourne Bypass), M3 (Clonee-Kells) and M4 (Dublin-Sligo/Galway) taken care of by private entities – Priority 1 routes.