No 'Big Freeze' this year, says Met Éireann

Met Éireann says there are no indications that the coming winter will be particularly severe.

No 'Big Freeze' this year, says Met Éireann

Met Éireann says there are no indications that the coming winter will be particularly severe.

The third annual winter-ready campaign is being launched today to provide simple and practical advice to deal with any adverse weather events in the months ahead.

The National Emergency Co-ordination task force - involving a number of State agencies and transport providers - held a meeting in Dublin today to review the plans.

However, Met Éireann meteorologist Gerald Fleming says the outlook so far suggests there will be no repeat of the severe snow and ice of winter 2010.

"All I would say about the coming winter is that we have no reason to believe that it will be particularly severe," he said.

"There's nothing in the runes to suggest that it will be anything other than a normal winter, bringing its share of wet weather, windy weather and some frosty nights."

“Substantial stocks of salt are already in storage in the country for immediate use to treat roads,” he said.

“These will increase to 210,000 tonnes by mid-December, enough to keep every fish-and-chip shop in the country operating for probably a decade.

“This compares to usage of probably 130,000 tonnes over the severe winter of 2010.”

Minister Shatter added: “Safety on our roads is at all times necessary, but particularly when severe weather makes driving difficult or hazardous.”

“Drivers can do a lot to avoid difficulties when bad conditions prevail by taking the advice being issued, particularly from Met Eireann and An Garda Síochána.”

The Minister said he had received assurances from Met Éireann that severe winters occur roughly once every decade.

But he insisted it is not possible to determine with any certainty what the long-term winter weather will be like.

The “Be Winter-Ready” information campaign is made up of information from different Government departments, gardai, the Health Service Executive, local authorities and transport providers.

It includes a dedicated website, a booklet and a new Twitter account with tweets from the Office of Emergency Planning.

Environment Minister Phil Hogan insisted the “whole Government” approach would ensure authorities are well prepared to deal with an unexpected onslaught of severe weather.

“Drawing on the experience of previous years and lessons learned, both central and local government are prepared and ready to respond to incidents of severe weather and to restore normal society’s functioning,” Mr Hogan said.

“The generic emergency management system is now in place and as well as our experience, exercises dealing with weather-related emergency scenarios have been conducted.”

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