A WHITE CHRISTMAS isn’t on the cards this year, with Met Éireann instead forecasting a day of scattered showers with sunny spells.

A white Christmas occurs when there is lying snow at 9am on 25 December at one of the main primary stations.

It has always been a rare occurrence in Ireland and is becoming rarer still due to climate change – the average December day now has a mean temperature of around seven degrees.

The last time a white Christmas happened was during the Big Freeze of 2010, and it’s happened nine times in all since 1964.

During the Big Freeze of 2010, the highest total of lying snow in Ireland on Christmas Day was recorded – 27 centimetres at Casement Aerodrome.

A Met Éireann spokesperson told The Journal that “while there remains some uncertainty in the forecast”, it looks likely that Christmas Day “will bring a mix of scattered showers and sunny spells”.

There is also a chance of longer spells of rain in some northern and western parts.

And while there will be a brief cooler spell on Christmas Day, it won’t bring any snow.

The Met Éireann spokesperson said: “The models are currently trending towards a brief cooler spell on Christmas Day after a relatively mild few days this week.

“However, temperatures will not be cold enough to bring any wintry precipitation.”

While Ireland does get occasional cold snaps, environmental journalist John Gibbons told The Journal that the “general climatic shift in Ireland is that we’re moving towards drier, warmer summers, and wetter, milder winters”.

He noted that the “amount of rainfall in Ireland in the last couple of decades has increased by 7%”.

“It’s a huge change and one of the reasons we’re seeing more and more flooding events,” said Gibbons.

“With every additional degree of global warming, we get an extra 7% precipitation in the atmosphere.

“Assuming global warming continues on its current path, it’s going to get an awful lot wetter in Ireland.

“I think it’s far more likely that we’ll have sodden Christmases rather than white Christmases.”