Arctic Ireland

The map is showing the extent of the current Arctic conditions that are continuing to prevail in Ireland. Now it looks like St Stephens Day is going to see a band of heavy rain moving in off the Atlantic that will be preceded by sleet or snow and after a Christmas Max of only 0c the temperature on December 26th will reach 6 or 7c in the rain eventually. The current spell has seen all sorts of records broken and it WILL be the coldest December on record. The average temperature for the whole of Ireland is only -1.2c nearly 7 degrees BELOW normal. The minimum has reached as low as -18c in Castlederg Co Tyrone and -17.2c in Foxford Co Mayo.

Satelite of Ireland on 22 Dec 2010 courtesy of http://www.sat24.com/ 

Bitterly Cold Weather on Way

Ireland is in for a bitterly cold spell of Arctic weather in the next 4 to 5 days. It all starts off on the night of December 16th and it looks like it is going to wreak havoc with people's travel plans over the Christmas period.

Thursday night sees heavy wintry showers of hail sleet and snow with some drifting in Donegal but this will become more widespread over Ulster and some parts of North Connaught too later on in the night.

On Friday the snow showers continue throughout the country perhaps turning to sleet as the real cold from the Low has yet to set in. Showers will be widespread on Friday evening though and this could bring a lot of snow to many parts of Ireland that will still be on the ground come Christmas due to freezing temperatures.

Saturday and Sunday will have further outbreaks of sleet and snow and though some Met Services are saying it wont be as bad as the cold spell we had at the beginning of the month it will probably bring more snow to some regions, just not the record Low temperatures... or will it?

Possible Snow from Thursday onwards

Ireland is set to see a week that starts off cold but becomes very cold with some cold and Arctic conditions setting in and temperatures barely above freezing by Friday. Snow could become a problem by this time too.

Image from http://www.sat24.com/ shows a lot of cold and frosty air over Ireland and the UK as of December 12th 2010

Thaw Slowly Sets In -- Briefly

THE BIG THAW - is about to start this Thursday December 9th with temperatures rising significantly to 4c to 8c before reaching the dizzy heights of 10 or 11c at the weekend

Image from http://www.sat24.com/ shows snow cover for Ireland and UK on Wednesday 8th December.

Cold Weather Just Wont Go Away

In what has truly been a remarkable period of cold weather so far with a record low of minus 16.4c in Mount Juliet and Minus 12.6c in Oak Park in Carlow (courtesy of http://www.met.ie/) the cold weather shows no sign of going away at all during the month of December 2010. In fact frost could be experienced on most of the nights of December.

There is however some hope at least of a brief thaw period for next weekend meaning at least temperatures will get up to the dizzy heights of 9c before plummeting again in the period up to Christmas. At the moment though there may also be another brief milder period around the Christmas but it is very far away yet and the weather models have varying degrees of confidence over this issue.

Fr Fr Freeeeeeeeeeezing Start to Winter 2010/11

God its cold. Temperatures in some parts of Ireland have already dipped to minus 8 or 9c and we are only at the beginning of the cold snap realtively speaking. It looks certain that the minimum will bypass minus 10c without a problem and as I write this blog it is currently minus 5c in Carlow and it is 4pm in the evening. Yes on Sunday 28th November a lot of parts of Ireland id not see the temperature go above freezing at all and this looks certain to continue all the way up to the end of the first week of December 2010. So a cold start to the year and now a cold end to it also.

So what is causing this exceptionally cold weather. Well there is a Low Pressure over France and a High Pressure close to Scandanavia and they together are steering cold Easterly winds all over Europe and to Britain and Ireland. Its also noticeable that the East Coast of Ireland is seeing widespread snowfall for the first time in many years in November. Some people have been quoting 1993 but I have to confirm this I thought it was the 80s myself but whatever the length of time we are seeing some truly exceptional weather at present.

Finally as you are probably now getting tired of reading as much as I am of typing.. How Long is this Cold Spell likely to last... well Met Eireann are saying it will be December the 3rd or 4th and there may be a subtle change to milder (6c) conditions. Irish Weather Online are expecting the cold weather to last at least on and off for most of the rest of the year and they are dealing specifically in the Long Range Weather of Ireland and are quite accurate. Then of course there are the Model weather charts of wetterzentrale and they predict a cold airmass over Ireland for the next 9 days with perhaps some minor Atlantic interruptions. But with Arctic air it can last an eternity of weeks or months or be blown away in a matter of days by a deep Atlantic depression but currently the Atlantic seems to have blown itself out.

see http://www.weathergossip.com/ my own webpage for more as well as

http://www.irishweatheronline.com/ Long Range Weather for Ireland Online
http://www.met.ie/ Irelands Weather
http://www.wetterzentrale.de/ 9 Day weather charts