Northern Ireland weather: Met Office Yellow Warning for ice until Friday morning - and no gritters during strike

Police have been warning drivers for most of this week to slow down on the roads, during the first big freeze of the year.

However it becomes even more hazardous today and tomorrow as gritters are part of the major public sector strike.

A Met Office Yellow Warning for icy conditions is in place until 10am on Friday.

The forecaster said that snow showers were expected to affect northern parts and eastern coastal areas of Northern Ireland last night. Southern parts of the province were expected to remain largely dry and clear with widespread, possibly severe frost, temperatures dipping to -6 °C overnight.

Thursday will be another cold day with sunny spells and snow showers, most frequent in the northern part of the province.

The best of today's sunshine will be in the south, but fog may be slow to clear. The highest temperature in the province today will be a chilly 3°C.

Wintry showers should largely die out on Thursday afternoon and will leave some surfaces damp into Friday.

Therefore, with skies clearing air and surface temperatures falling below zero, icy stretches are likely tomorrow where surfaces remain damp, with a risk of black ice in places.

Wednesday saw snow and ice making driving conditions difficult throughout Northern Ireland, but unlike Tuesday, no roads were reported to be closed by either the PSNI or Traffic Watch NI.

And while snow and ice closed seven schools on Tuesday, there were no reports of closures the day after.

The Met Office said 3cm of snow was recorded overnight into Wednesday at Lough Fea in Londonderry, with temperatures dropping overnight from Tuesday into Wednesday as low as -6.6C in Altnahinch Filters, Antrim.

The Met Office has also issued a new Yellow Warning for high winds of 50-70mph this Sunday. The warning applies to all six counties and runs from 6am until midnight.

Northern and western areas are likely to be most at risk from higher winds.