White christmas unlikely

A white Christmas is all but being ruled out by Met Eireann, as relatively mild weather is expected in the run up to Christmas.

Met Eireann’s Gerry Murphy said that “the overall situation is that it in general it is going to be quiet mild for much of the time.”

Mr Murphy predicted wet and blustery conditions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with daytime temperatures ranging between 10 and 12 degrees.
Conditions will get a little colder on Friday and Saturday with daytime temperatures of between five and eight degrees. The drop in temperature will lead to the possibility of some rain and possibly hail or sleet.

However, temperatures are expected to rise again between Sunday and Tuesday. During that time daytime temperatures will be “back up to the 10s or 11s at least until Christmas Eve, that’s as far as the forecast goes,” Mr Murphy explained. With temperatures so mild, Mr Murphy said a white Christmas was unlikely.

He dismissed recent reports of a big freeze as speculative and said, depending on the meteorological situation, accurate forecasting is only possible for up to between seven and ten days.

Speaking of forecasts for January, Mr Murphy said: “You cannot forecast that far ahead with any accuracy. We are the national forecaster, if we could, we would.”  While he didn’t endorse the prediction of a big freeze, Mr Murphy said at this time of year “you can’t rule out that extreme weather won’t happen.”