Cold snap sees schools close and travel disrupted

Snow, fog and ice have brought further disruption to parts of Northern Ireland with a number of schools closed and commuters facing travel delays on Thursday.

A yellow warning for snow and ice for counties Antrim, Londonderry, Fermanagh and Tyrone expired at 11:00 GMT.

A yellow warning for freezing fog had also been issued for all of Northern Ireland until 09:00 on Thursday, as visibility fell to less than 100m in places.

Some schools have been closed and police have advised drivers to reduce speed as the cold snap continues to make roads hazardous.

Translink has warned passengers that bus services will be subject to delay and disruption due to the weather.

The majority of the school closures are in the north west, including schools in Liimavady, Claudy and Derry.

Translink said it would not be able to provide bus services to untreated roads in the city.

Temperatures fell to -7C in Castlederg, County Tyrone, overnight.

Many yellow warnings are issued when it is likely that the weather will cause some low level impacts, including some disruption to travel in a few places.

Other yellow warnings are issued when the weather could bring much more severe impacts to the majority of people but the certainty of those impacts occurring is much lower.

Police have urged drivers to slow down and keep a safe distance from other vehicles because of "freezing conditions and heavy fog".

In a social media post, Michael Allen, headmaster of Lisneal College in Derry, said he had decided to close the school on Thursday.

"Roads on outskirts and around school are treacherous and I do not want to put students, families and staff at any risk," he said.

The Department for Infrastructure said it had salted roads on the scheduled network overnight. including school routes, but that road users should exercise caution when travelling.

In Plumbridge, County Tyrone, Annie Mullan and her husband Vincent run Buttlerlope social and eco farm, but they have closed it this week for safety reasons.

"There's been heavy snow, we have about six inches of it up here," she told BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today on Thursday.

"We have had to cancel our social farm services these last two days… people are finding it difficult to get out on the roads."

She said the weather was proving challenging especially for people in rural areas and the way roads in the area are treated "needs to be looked at".

"They are saying there are not enough people on the route but it is used for a lot of key services, to get to Draperstown, for schools, for commuters," she said.

Derry City and Strabane District Council also warned residents of possible disruption to a number of services, including bin collection.

It advised people to leave their bin out as normal and that those not emptied today will be emptied as conditions improve later this week.

All council cemeteries are also closed to the public on Thursday except to facilitate burials.

The Met Office said that "showers of rain and sleet near coasts, and snow inland, would continue to affect the north and west of Northern Ireland this evening, overnight and into Thursday morning".

A spokesperson said: "As surfaces fall below freezing, this will lead to some icy stretches on untreated surfaces, while a few centimetres of fresh snow could affect some areas, mainly places above about 100 metres."

Cloud and mist or fog will linger particularly inland on Thursday and there will be some snow in the north of Northern Ireland.

Temperatures are expected to fall below zero again overnight.

In the Republic of Ireland, most of the country remains under a status orange ice and cold temperature warning until 11:00.

Temperatures dropped to -7.5C overnight.

About 4,500 homes are without water and around 500 premises without power as the country's cold snap enters a sixth day.

Met Éireann said it would remain very cold on Thursday and temperatures were expected to drop again overnight and into Friday.

On Monday, it was confirmed that the recent wintry conditions had triggered cold weather payments in eight postcode areas in Northern Ireland.

The £25 payment is made to people living in areas where the temperature is recorded or forecast to be 0°C or below for seven consecutive days.

They will be paid to people living in the following postcodes in County Down:

• BT24, 25, 26
• BT30, 31, 32, 33, 34