TRENDS for the week of 30 Dec to 5 Jan 2020
-- Temperatures will average 3-4 deg below normal values.-- Rainfall will be rather slight and most precipitation that does occur will be wintry mixtures (amounting to 10-20 per cent of normal seasonal rainfall amounts).
-- Sunshine will be 25 to 50 per cent above normal except closer to average in the west.
FORECASTS
TONIGHT will see some clearing and a reduction in the snow shower activity, very cold with lows near -3 C.
THURSDAY (31st) will be a cold, generally bright day with scattered wintry showers, some accumulations of snows on northern hills, and highs 3-5 C. New Years Eve at midnight, weather prospects are clear to partly cloudy, isolated snow showers, very cold, significant wind chill, temperatures -2 to -4 C.
FRIDAY (New Years Day) will be partly cloudy with isolated snow showers, lows near -4 C and highs near 4 C.
The OUTLOOK calls for a continuation of the cold spell with more of an anticyclonic influence, perhaps dropping overnight lows into the -6 C range. Daytime temperatures will remain about 2-5 C. Isolated snow showers are likely but mainly in streamers coming in from the Irish Sea, affecting mostly central Leinster. At first, nothing too heavy is expected, but the charts show this cold spell undergoing periodic reinforcements and there could be even colder and more severe winter weather in mid-January if the guidance proves correct.
-- Peter O'Donnell for IWO