Black ice and snow caused many cars to crash yesterday as the winter weather brought treacherous road conditions throughout the country.
Co Cork was the worst affected county for black ice as road temperatures plummeted to minus 4 for motorists making their way to work yesterday morning.
Both the N8/M8 and the N22, two of the main routes into Cork city, were closed for a time yesterday morning because of the state of the roads.
One motorist reported to the AA seeing more than 40 crashed cars on the N22 Ballincollig bypass and described it as "being like a war zone".
An estimated 15 cars crashed on the M8 Fermoy/Cork motorway, which is also the main Cork-Dublin road.
There were also reports of crashes on the N20 between Cork city and Limerick city, while gardaí cleared a four-car crash near the slip road to Blarney.
Later in the morning torrential rain caused havoc on Cork roads with a series of flash floods. Emergency services responded to serious flooding on the Tower to Blarney road and a tree and ESB pole were down in Maryborough Hill in Douglas causing severe disruption.
Flooding was reported in Blackpool, Blarney, Bishopstown, the Viaduct and some low-lying city centre streets near the South Terrace.
Heavy falls of snow forced the closure of Belfast George Best Airport for a time yesterday morning, a 20mph speed limit was enforced on the M2 in Co Antrim and lightning caused a three-hour power cut in south Down.
The bad weather also caused the postponement of a meeting of the Free Presbyterian Church in Belfast which was scheduled to elect a successor to the Rev Ian Paisley.
Heavy snow in the northwest caused a number of accidents. In Co Sligo three trucks crashed into a ditch on the N16 near Glencar. A lorry skidded and crashed into the roundabout in Summerhill, Sligo town, causing long delays. A lorry jack-knifed north of Barnesmore Gap on the N15 between Donegal town and Ballybofey. Many of the main roads in Co Donegal were impassable for a time, including the N56 Killybegs to Donegal road.
Counties from Clare to Donegal experienced heavy falls of snow throughout the morning. The Westport to Castlebar road was blocked by a jack-knifed lorry while there were tailbacks between seven and eight kilometres long on approaches into Galway city yesterday morning.
Two flights into Cork and Ireland West Airport Knock were diverted to Shannon because of the bad weather.
Two ferries, the Irish Ferries Swift sailing from Dublin to Holyhead at 2.30pm yesterday and the Stena Line HSS from Dún Laoghaire to Holyhead, were both cancelled.
There were also treacherous conditions in the Border counties. A van which skidded out of control collided with an Army lorry at Castleshane just outside Monaghan town on the main N2 Dublin-Derry yesterday afternoon. Nobody was injured.
Conditions improved yesterday afternoon when freezing conditions were replaced by windier, blustery conditions.
It will remain cold, wet and windy over the weekend with some frost on Saturday night with icy patches, but it would appear that the brief cold snap is over for now.
