Yellow warning for snow and ice for Derry compounded by new alert for freezing fog

With a bitterly cold Arctic airmass continuing to dominate the weather across Ireland this week meteorologists have warned people of dangerous travelling conditions overnight.

The Met Office has issued a yellow warning for snow and ice for Derry which is live until 11am on Thursday morning.

It has warned of the potential for snow and icy patches leading to some disruption to travel, longer journey times and hazardous roads, pavements and cycle paths that will pose a risk of injuries from collisions and slips and falls.

A yellow weather warning for low temperatures and ice has also been issued by Met Éireann for the whole of Ireland until Friday with a more severe orange warning in place for all of the 26 counties bar Donegal until 11am tomorrow.

The Met Office has now issued a further yellow weather warning for freezing fog until 9am on Thursday.

It says fog is expected to become more extensive and thicken across the North this evening and overnight, with visibility falling to less than 100m in places.

A decrease in wind speeds over the last two days has facilitated the formation of fog and freezing fog, meteorologists have explained.

"Once formed the fog may well persist into Thursday morning. Some icy patches will also develop on untreated surfaces bringing an additional hazard,” it cautions.

Referring to the persistently cold conditions Met Éireann’s Deputy Head of Forecasting Liz Coleman, said: “This prolonged cold spell will bring very hazardous conditions over the next few days with no real opportunity for melt of significant lying snow.

"Given there has been a lot of snow over the weekend, as well as rain which has now frozen, there will be really dangerous conditions on the roads.

"The icy conditions will be particularly impactful for some road users, such as cyclists and motorcyclists, so alternative travel should be considered if possible.

“Really slippery on footpaths too so tricky conditions underfoot. We’d ask the public give extra time for any travel that they have to make.”

Snow and ice warnings for tonight but big swing this weekend