Met Eireann are advising the nations motorists to be extra careful over the coming days as the country’s roads will be under threat from “potentially lethal” black ice.
The national forecaster says that a number of roads will see black ice after a prolonged spell of rainfall over the coming days combined with plummeting temperatures which will cause severe freezing on already wet ground. Met Éireann’s head of forecasting Gerald Fleming there is a high probability of black ice on arising on Irish roads.
Mr Felming says: “Over the coming week we will see more frosty nights, reverting to a more normal temperature regime for mid-winter.” “Where you get frost on a dry road usually it’s white and you can see it, but where the road is already wet and it freezes you get black ice which is exceptionally dangerous because it can look to the driver just like a wet road – and the adhesion that you have to the road in your car is virtually nothing.”
The leading forecaster added: “If you get stuck into that situation it is potentially lethal and its something to watch in days to come. Where obviously the main road network is well maintained and salted, the side roads typically are not treated.”
