Snow and ice warning causes disruption across country

A yellow snow and ice warning has caused wide-spread disruption across Northern Ireland.

The Met Office has said snow showers will gradually ease on Monday with the weather warning coming to an end at midday.

More than 170 schools are closed on Monday as a result of a weekend of wintry weather. A full list can be viewed here.

Translink is warning of delays to all routes, with some services operating on main roads only.

The principal of St Patrick and St Brigid’s College in Claudy, Phillip McCullagh, made the decision to close the school on Sunday afternoon.

He said about 500 pupils will be affected by the closure, as well as staff members.

After a risk assessment and consulting with nearby schools, Mr McCullagh deemed that there were “too many risks involved” to keep the school open.

“It is very, very bad in terms of it will take a long time for us to clear our site but also the footpaths as well.

“And again it’s as bad as I’ve seen it,” he told BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster programme.

Mr McCullagh also noted that learning is impacted as there are many pupils who want to come back and start the new school term.

The Met Office said snow showers are expected into Monday with some fresh accumulations mainly over northern high ground, but showers will become isolated later with sunny spells before frost and ice return on Monday evening.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has urged motorists to take extra care on the roads, especially in areas which may not have been gritted due to wintry conditions.

“Clear your windscreen of ice and snow before you set off on your journey, and remember to slow down and increase the distance between you and the vehicle ahead,” police said.

Simon Wells from the Northern Ireland Road Service said there has been “virtually round the clock salting of roads” this weekend.

He said the roads that are salted are passable with care and advised motorists to leave more time for journeys.

“Some of the dual carriageways, you’ll find lane two still has some snow on it because it hasn’t really been trafficked – it has been salted, but it hasn’t been particularly trafficked, people have been sticking to the inside lane,” Mr Wells said.

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster, he said the road service salts any road that carries more than 1,500 vehicles per day.

“That amounts to roughly 28% of our network which is over 4,000 miles or roughly 7,000 kms and that carries 80% of all traffic.”

Principal of Lislagan Primary School in Ballymoney, Louise Creelman, also made the decision to close the school on Sunday.

Ms Creelman said she is aware of the disruption that school closures can cause, but said the “sheer volume” of cars arriving at the school is usually “chaotic” on a normal day, never mind when there is snow and ice.

She said once the weather warning ends at midday she will assess the conditions, and make a decision on whether it will open on Tuesday.

Thomas Conway, who is a farmer in Park, County Londonderry, said many roads near him are “impassable”.

He said that meant that many people in his area were unable to get to work this morning.

“The main routes are salted and they’re passable with care, but all the by-roads… we used to have local farmers employed to put snow ploughs on them, which helped immensely, but that seems to have all stopped now,” he told BBC Radio Foyle’s North West Today programme.

“We’ll get through it and we’ll hunker through it and it’ll be fine.”

Flights

At Belfast International Airport, inbound and outbound flights have been cancelled on Monday due to the weather.

Arrivals from destinations such as Bristol, Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool have been cancelled.

And departures to Birmingham, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Bristol, Glasgow, Manchester and London Luton are not going ahead.

The airport said delays are expected as the day goes on.

At Belfast City Airport flights to and from Inverness and Amsterdam have been cancelled due to the weather conditions.

Both airports have advised passengers to check with the airline or the airport website for live updates.

The runway at the City of Derry Airport is currently closed for snow and ice clearance.

Efforts made this morning has already been hampered by the weather conditions.

Flights to London, Glasgow and Liverpool are delayed, meanwhile a flight to Birmingham has been cancelled.

A flight to Manchester has been diverted to Belfast International Airport.

The airport said flights to Edinburgh and London Heathrow will be updated in due course as the runway is cleared.

Public transport

A number of Translink bus services have been impacted by the icy conditions.

The 0645 GMT X1 service from Dublin to Belfast cancelled.

Services in the Magherafelt and Cookstown areas are operating on treated main roads only.

The 09:00 127 service from Magherafelt to Ballymena will not operate.

The 16:25 325a from Lisburn will not operate.

Several routes in the Ballymena area are also not running as normal.

Council areas

Derry City and Strabane Council

• Household bin collections have been suspended
• Cemeteries are closed but burials will continue to be prioritised
• Some recycling centres will have a delayed opening
• Some community centres will be closed

Schools

A full list of school closures can be viewed here.

The Education Authority said its transport service planned to operate as normal on Monday but said there may be some disruption or delays.

Yellow warnings for snow, ice and low temperatures have also been in place across the Republic of Ireland over the weekend.

Irish weather service Met Éireann has weather warnings in place until 11:00 local time on Monday.

A yellow alert for snow and ice is in place for Counties Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan, Louth and Connacht.

A separate yellow warning for low temperatures and ice has been issued for Counties Carlow, Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Meath, Offaly, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow and Munster.