Looking ahead to the weather for next weekend...Sat 11th Dec

The big events coming up next weekend are the Marathon & Half-Marathon in Clonakilty in West Cork and the Half-Marathon in Waterford. It's pretty obvious from talking to people that a fair number of runners from Cork will be doing one of these races.

The big question now of course is what will the weather be like for next Saturday and will all of the events go ahead?

The current forecast is that a high pressure system will establish itself near Ireland and will in effect block some of the cold polar winds that we have been getting for the last week to 10 days. It is predicted that a thaw will set in on Thurs and on Friday with temperatures up around 6 to 9 deg C. The weather for Saturday looks pretty good.....no rain....light winds and it may well be bright. The issue however is not the weather, it's really about the condition of the roads. Will there be snow / slush / ice / black ice on the roads?

Waterford.........The Waterford Half-Marathon route basically starts in the Waterford City, runs to Tramore on the coast and back again. This is a photo from RTE News of Tramore on Tuesday afternoon, the 7th of Dec.

Obviously if that gets compacted and freezes, it will take a while to thaw out. Parts of the route are on the hard shoulder of the main road and I presume that won't have been treated by the council?

The organisers Waterford AC have issued the following statement...
"Waterford AC are continuing to monitor the weather and road situation like everyone else in the country. We will make a final decision on Thursday at noon whether the run will go ahead or not on Saturday. We want the run to go ahead but safety is paramount and we will consult with the Guards whether they think it will be safe to proceed with race. Please bear with us. "

Clonakilty......the situation in Clonakilty is more promising in that it is probably an issue of whether there is ice on the roads or not. Met Eireann are forecasting the following for Friday night...."Frost will be confined mainly to southern and southeastern parts on Friday night ". With the race starting at 9am, there will be no time for the roads to thaw if there is ice.

Obviously it is a very difficult situation for the organisers of both events. Do they cancel or don't they? Hopefully the milder temperatures on Thursday and Friday will sort things out.
Keep checking for updates to make sure that these races are going ahead. There is no point wasting a long trip only to find that the race has been cancelled.