North Atlantic Skyline » roscommon

Iced Over

John Smyth — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 00:12:09 +0000

On Christmas morning 2009, I took a picture of the temperature reading on my car dashboard. I was in Carrick-on-Shannon, snow lay on the ground and it was minus 8 degrees Celcius. It was the coldest reading I had seen on my car’s temperature gauge thus far. On Christmas Day 2010, the car gauge read minus 12 in Eyre Square at 8.30 in the morning. It was the coldest I had seen in the city, but temperatures in the west of Ireland regularly dipped well below that temperature. The lowest temperature I witnessed myself was minus 15 near Athenry a few days before Xmas, but temperatures were lower than that in the north of the country.

The cold spell was long-lived by Irish standards, and in many towns and cities, frozen pipes meant no water for many people. Lakes and rivers froze too – even the Shannon. The picture above [taken on Dec 23rd] shows the river Suck (which flows into the Shannon) near the bridge at Ballyforan on the Roscommon/Galway border. The water near the bridge flowed freely but 50 metres downstream, the river surface was completely frozen.

Here is a view of the river when it is not frozen.

Lady’s Smock

John Smyth — Mon, 31 May 2010 23:29:31 +0000

From the high-water levels during the flooding last November, the River Suck is as low as I’ve seen it at the moment. On a bend in the river, near the crossing at Ballyforan at the Roscommon-Galway border, a carpet of pink Lady’s Smock flowers carpet a meadow that will be underwater again by the end of the year.

Robin

John Smyth — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 23:50:03 +0000

RTE Radio One presenter Derek Mooney has a webcam set up in a robin’s nest in his back garden this year. Last night, at around 8.45, I had a look at the site and saw that there were 3 new hatchlings tottering about, newly arrived. This morning, it looks like a foruth has hatched, and one egg remains. I’m not sure how they are doing – a couple of them seem a bit quiet, even when the parent comes back with food. The webcam can be found here.

I visited Lough Key Forest Park in Co. Roscommon on the afternoon of Christmas Day last year. The lake was nearly completely frozen over and the the grounds were covered in snow. The birds there are used to being fed, and as soon as I got out of the car, I was surrounded by little birds hopping around looking for a handout. I had to walk away from the robin in order to focus on it – it was originally right at my foot which was too close for the lens to focus on it.

The Night Crossing

John Smyth — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:34:48 +0000

Night traffic crossing the River Suck at Ballyforan in Co. Roscommon on a clear and starry night .[taken the same night as this picture and this picture].

Two days of constant rain have begun to swell the rivers again. It’s not looking god for the Easter weekend.