While winter stroke hard everywhere in Europe and parts of America, Ireland and Cork also tried to cope with it. Cork experienced its coldest winter in about 60 years. That meant that it was around zero during the day and a few degrees below freezing point in the night for more than a couple of days in January. Already in December temperatures were low and this continued in the first week of January. Except for the problems faced with the roads during my brothers’ visit I wasn’t really bothered by it. I only had to walk carefully on the slippery roads.
On Saturday 9 January I decided to check out the lough as I heard that it was nice in the frost. Many parents with children thought the same. They were feeding the birds and some tried the ice. However, the first couple of meters from the edge looked bad with cracks everywhere. This explained itself when I headed to the other side. An excavator was destroying the ice built up over night, probably to prevent people from going on the ice. In this way the city council prevents to get accused by the community when something happens on the ice.
Since I arrived in Cork I wanted to have a look at the north side of the city. This part is built against a steeper hill than the south side which creates steep roads and good views. On Sunday morning 10 January I finally had the time to go there. I was only 15 minutes away and the first snow flakes were falling down from the sky. According to the weather forecast snow would fall in the morning as temperatures were just below freezing and in the afternoon rain would follow. During a walk of 2.5 hours the amount of snow slowly increased and turned Cork white. Around 13:30 I was home again and it was still snowing. After that the snow flakes became bigger and the density higher so by sunset the whole city was covered in a layer of snow of several centimeters. Just around midnight the very unusual snow in Cork stopped creating sludge and slippery roads in the morning. By the end of Monday most evidence was gone and Tuesday morning it started raining again as usual.
See here for the pictures of Cork Lough by frost and here for the pictures of my walk in the city and the snow.