THERE IS VIRTUALLY no chance of snow this Christmas, according to Met Éireann.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, the head of forecasting Gerald Fleming said:
It’s not going to snow this Christmas, no … I think the chances of that are virtually zero.
“It really looks like we’re going to stick with this mild flow, it may get a little cooler around Christmas day itself in that we may see a bit of frost on the ground some mornings, but that will be the extent of it.
“Snow will be a very remote possibility as we look forward now.”
No snow – but plenty of rain
Fleming added that the temperatures at the moment are in double figures and that they will remain that way for the rest of today and tonight.
“It’s pretty untypical. If we look at the temperatures at the moment they’re two and half to three degrees above average if we look at the average temperatures for December thus far.
They’re way out there on the extremes of what we’ve experienced in the past.
“We have a very wet and very mild spell that we’re in the middle of.”
He also added that this means more rain, “The other side of that means it has been very wet because warm air brings a lot of moisture with it at this time of the year.
“Already our average December rainfall totals are well exceeded at most of our stations – in fact, many of them are heading for double the average and it’s only two-thirds through the month.”
The cold is coming
Speaking about the months ahead, Fleming said:
From what we see in January the temperatures seems to revert back to more normal values, which would involve some colder weather.
“It would be unusual for such a spell to continue anyway.”
So in conclusion, there’s no chance of a white Christmas – just a wet one, and even though it’s not very cold right now, it’s waiting for us in January. Great.
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