North Dublin roads
Fog doesn't care where you're going
I'm not trying to sound like your auntie at the back door, but you'll never outrun fog by driving faster through it. Plenty try. Met Éireann has put out a Status Yellow fog warning for Leinster, which takes in Dublin, along with Connacht, Munster, Cavan and Monaghan, and it runs from nine on Saturday night until eleven on Sunday morning. Areas of dense fog, it says, with poor visibility and difficult travelling conditions.
Met Éireann's own definition of Status Yellow is weather that isn't a threat to the general population but can be dangerous on a localised scale. Localised means wherever you're driving at the time. Their advice is to take no avoidable risks, and a midnight chipper run on the Ballymun Road is about as avoidable as they come. Couldn't it wait till lunchtime?
Then there are the lights. Plenty of drivers meet fog with full beam, on the theory that more light must mean more seeing, and the RSA says it does the opposite: it'll cut your line of sight and dazzle everyone coming the other way. Dipped headlights are what you'd want. Citizens Information puts it well: they'll help you see and be seen. Fog lights are for fog or falling snow, and only when visibility is properly reduced (the rear one is not a party light, and it's not meant to stay on till Tuesday). Gardaí say switch them off once you're out of it. Most of the warning falls inside lighting-up hours anyway, which run from half an hour after sunset to half an hour before sunrise. So you'd have the wagon's lights on regardless.
Now the gap. The RSA says the 2 second rule becomes 4 seconds in bad weather, and Gardaí add the obvious bit: slow down. Don't sit on the tail-lights in front either. The driver ahead might be turning into a driveway in Santry, or leaving the road for reasons of their own, and you've no business following them. Fog doesn't hand out directions.
It's also patchy, the RSA warns. A clear stretch on the main road out of Swords tells you nothing about the next one, so resist the urge to give it socks the moment the windscreen brightens. The Swords roundabouts are a puzzle on a bright day, so in fog you'll want to know your lane before you arrive. There'll be less Finglas traffic on a Sunday morning. The fog won't care. And if you've to stop, put the hazards on. There's more on the roads round here in the north Dublin roads section.
(If you're on L plates, learning to drive around north Dublin is worth more than any forecast.)
The warning's over at eleven. Whatever you're rushing for will still be there.