Arctic weather causes major disruption across Offaly

With temperatures across the Midlands expected to drop as low as -8 degrees over the next two nights, the adverse weather is continuing to cause havoc across many parts of Offaly, with disruption to schools and businesses looking set to continue for the rest of the week.

Met Eireann has upgraded the entire Midlands region to a Status Orange low temperature and ice warning, which comes into effect at 8pm this evening until 10am tomorrow morning (Wednesday).

The Artic blast, which closed many primary and seconary schools across Offaly yesterday, is likely to cause severe impacts to school timetables again tomorrow with Met Éireann warning that motorists will face very dangerous travelling conditions due to severe frost, ice and lying snow.

Many Offaly students and teachers who were due to return to their classrooms got an unexpected extension to their Christmas break due to the adverse weather conditions, with a raft of primary and secondary schools opting not to open on Monday, including all three secondary schools in Tullamore: Sacred Heart, Coláiste Choilm and Tullamore College, as well as a large number of primary schools in the town, among them being St. Philomena's; Scoil Bhríde; St. Joseph's and Scoil Eoin Phoil. Tullamore Educate Together and Gaelscoil an Eiscir Riada made the decision to open.

Both Oaklands Community College and St. Mary's Secondary School in Edenderry reamained closed yesterday, along with a number of primary schools in the town and also in rural areas. The lack of school bus transport from rural areas was a major factor in many schools making the decision to remain closed.

The work of the LOETB was also affected by weather conditions with both the Birr and Edenderry facilities making the decision to remain closed yesterday.

Along with disruption to primary and secondary school timetables in Offaly, local bingo sessions which were due to take place at many venues across the county were also cancelled, including in Clara, while Birr Castle Demense remained closed throughout the day yesterday due to heavy snowfall on Sunday and freezing conditions overnight on Sunday. Many parts of Offaly escaped the worst of the winter snowfall, but the heavy snowstorms in Tipperary impacted Birr and many parts of South Offaly.

The majority of schools across Offaly are open today |(Tuesday) but with temperatures due to plummet even further for the rest of the week, further closures cannot be ruled out.

Met Éireann is predicting that the Arctic conditions affecting large parts of the country will last at least until Friday.