Ireland’s weather forecasters are refusing to make a call on a White Christmas – after getting it wrong in November!
Met Eireann, the state weather service, had warned of heavy snowfall in the penultimate month of the year.
But those initial warnings soon proved false as November ended up drier than normal with low rain totals across the country.
The unusually mild conditions in November has many fearing the worst in December, but Met Eireann forecaster Gerald Fleming is offering no hints.
He laughed about a White Christmas in an interview with the Irish Times newspaper when he said: “You can’t predict that with any reliability.”
Fleming did reveal that temperatures had been lower than normal on occasion in November despite the mild conditions.
Rainfall was also down with levels for the month between one third and one half usual levels for the month.
Dublin and the East Coast experienced the lowest rainfall for November.
The Irish Times reports that Cork received less than half its average rainfall for the month.
Cavan and Galway statistics were also down but figures at the Malin Head station in Donegal were higher than average.
Fleming told the paper that despite the general mildness average air temperatures were down at many stations when compared to annual averages for November.
Temperatures are expected to drop in the coming days with heavy frost and ice expected by the weekend.
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