Tomorrow will be March, traditionally the second month of Spring, but there is no sign of that season this morning.
The people of Laois are waking up to a covering of the fluffy stuff once more and it is causing considerable problems.
A status orange snow-ice warning is in place for Laois with up to 6cm of snow having fallen in some parts overnight.
The warning remains in place until 11am this morning but it would appear that this is only the tip of the iceberg in relation to this so-called ‘Beast from the East’.
Forecasters say that with temperatures struggling to get above -1 today, there will be no thawing even after it stops snowing.
And they also reckon that the worst of the weather won’t be experienced until Thursday when Storm Emma makes its way up from Portugal.
Alan O’Reilly, of Carlow Weather, predicts that we may see a foot of snow by Friday.
He said: “We’ve had some heavy showers overnight but really Thursday night is going to be the big story.
“We’re going to have Storm Emma moving up, meeting the cold air from the ‘Beast from the East’ and it is going to dump a lot of snow.
“We are talking about a foot of snow and more in some places.
“There will also be 100km per hour winds so you are going to have blowing snow. This will reduce visibility.
“So if you go out driving and you think it is not too bad, then all of a sudden you drive into a blizzard, your visibility is considerably reduced.”
In terms of when the snow is likely to melt, Alan says it could be Sunday before that happens.
He said: “It doesn’t look like it is going to thaw too quickly now at all. It does look like it will last until Saturday night at least.
“There might be a slight thaw on Sunday but it doesn’t look like Spring is coming anytime soon.
“So if this snow does come as expected, it could be the worst since 1982.”
Very heavy snow pic.twitter.com/jVSpbcGayx
— LaoisWeather (@LaoisWeather) February 27, 2018
SEE ALSO – LIVE: See all events CANCELLED ahead of ‘Beast from the East’
