Donegal Postman Guarantees White Christmas

Sponge Bob

Well 90% certain guarantees a white christmas. None of your poncy GFS models are needed in Donegal. Michael Gallagher the Postman in Glenfin is the MAN.

http://www.donegaldemocrat.ie/donegalnews/Dreaming-of-a-white-Christmas.5912271.jp

He uses sophisticated 3d atmospheric optical analysis methodologies.

"When the sun shines on to the Blue stack mountains and down to the lowlands it's turning a reddish-brown colour - that's a sign of snow."

and for those of you further back the learning curve

The huge interest in old traditions and techniques and the study of animal behaviour prompted him to complete a book this year called 'Traditional weather signs'.

He then analyses ground based indicators at the base of this vertical Opto Atmospheric plane.

The 61-year-old adds: "The fox is getting very busy, looking for hens and howling at two in the morning." All these signs are pushing him in the direction to believe that children will be building snowmen this December.

Having said that he and Ken were in broad agreement not all that long back

http://www.herald.ie/national-news/experts-say-weve-seen-the-last-of-the-sun-this-summer-1825021.html

And I will say that Michael Gallagher was quite right then.

Pangea

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Well 90% certain guarantees a white christmas. None of your poncy GFS models are needed in Donegal. Michael Gallagher the Postman in Glenfin is the MAN.

http://www.donegaldemocrat.ie/donegalnews/Dreaming-of-a-white-Christmas.5912271.jp

He uses sophisticated 3d atmospheric optical analysis methodologies.



and for those of you further back the learning curve



He then analyses ground based indicators at the base of this vertical Opto Atmospheric plane.



Having said that he and Ken were in broad agreement not all that long back

http://www.herald.ie/national-news/experts-say-weve-seen-the-last-of-the-sun-this-summer-1825021.html

And I will say that Michael Gallagher was quite right then.

He was dead right in 2000 when we got nearly a foot of snow in donegal.

Deep Easterly

What area is his forecast covering? If a brown sun over the Blue Stacks means snow is on the way, then it might snow, in the Blue Stacks... (or does a brown sun over the hills of Donegal mean snow for all of Ireland?

Didn't see any brown sun here yet. Should I be worried?

Sponge Bob

Have you a "Blue Stack" for starters? One or more than one? He likes "Blue Stacks" himself. If not then come back in here when you have a few handy and have bought the book , m'kay !!

pistolpetes11

Deep Easterly wrote: »

What area is his forecast covering? If a brown sun over the Blue Stacks means snow is on the way, then it might snow, in the Blue Stacks... (or does a brown sun over the hills of Donegal mean snow for all of Ireland?

Didn't see any brown sun here yet. Should I be worried?

He said on the report on breakingnews.ie widespread snowfall, Go on the post man

Postmen know tings....
Actually, my nana who was from Donegal, used to say something about the sky being brown when snow was due.

Deep Easterly

I was just thinking that if things spin, then things will actually spin.

To expand, I was walking on a square tile today, only I just didn't realize that it was a square tile until my brain registered it as being a square and recognized it as such. That is, a square tile.

There is a little rock in my garden and I noticed it was pointing NE today, I thought this odd, as it always pointed to the north east on a good day. That can only mean one thing. It is going to snow in Cork on Christmas Day! :eek:

dbyrne

and the ground will be white when the snow falls...thats a real give away.:D

Im in donegal this christmas, have been with my donegal wife 8 years and it always snowed at christmas in donegal (or so she claims) before i went out with her but since then it has never snowed... amazing if you believe that.. so I am looking to be snowed in this year... i would love a white christmas for my new babys 1st one.

Graces7

He didn't mean the sun was brown, but the lowlands...

Poetic turn of phrase...

Am high up in the Blue Stacks and brown it has been the last days.

Pangea

Deep Easterly wrote: »

I was just thinking that if things spin, then things will actually spin.

To expand, I was walking on a square tile today, only I just didn't realize that it was a square tile until my brain registered it as being a square and recognized it as such. That is, a square tile.

There is a little rock in my garden and I noticed it was pointing NE today, I thought this odd, as it always pointed to the north east on a good day. That can only mean one thing. It is going to snow in Cork on Christmas Day! :eek:

:rolleyes:

shiibata

Weather prediction expert:rolleyes: We all expect the opposite of his predictions.

InKonspikuou2

There's always someone every year who says something about snails climbing higher on the walls or seagulls flying upside down equals snow.

howlinwolf

looks like the postie should just stick to puttin the right post in the right letterbox for the time being,the outlook is for it to get milder from christmas day on....then again if even a small part of the country gets a
few flakes he will be technically right;).......

Pangea

To be fair to him he got it spot on , he never said there would be snow on christmas day exactly , he said in the run up to christmas , i.e. the christmas period.

Sponge Bob

Yeah he said 90% chance at least 10 days before christmas and it will have been feckin FREEZIN for 9 out of those 10 days. Pretty spot on by Met Éireann standards innit

cian1500ww

He was dead right, fair play to him, hopefully his methods won't be lost in time.

Graces7

Some of the old folk lore is fascinating.

They say that when there is a heavy crop of eg haws it will be a hard winter.

This year the hawthorns were red with them.

It seems that we would say that that is because of a good summer.

But this year, we had a hard May when they were in blossom; even more so for the blackthorn and where we are the whitethorn blossom was a glory but hardly any sloes; too few insects to pollinate in that chilly weather?

Yet the haws were heavy.

Redsunset

Birds going mental today.
There was a mass of them earlier with twigs and berries in almost all their peaks.
probably normal but have never witnessed such a large amount at the same time doing it.
This nature forecasting is cool.
All i need to see now is one of those polar bears:D

Pangea

yes the wildlife is interesting in the cold weather, it really comes out to survive, i have 2 robins outside my door every day now ,they are like pets

Deep Easterly

Pangea wrote: »

yes the wildlife is interesting in the cold weather, it really comes out to survive, i have 2 robins outside my door every day now ,they are like pets

There is an old wives tale around these parts that if 2 robins land outside your door it is a sign that you are destined to die a horrible and agonising death within 8 days.








:P

Pangea

Deep Easterly wrote: »

There is an old wives tale around these parts that if 2 robins land outside your door it is a sign that you are destined to die a horrible and agonising death within 8 days.



:P

Ha ha god almighty , thanks for that :pac:

Redsunset

Deep Easterly wrote: »

There is an old wives tale around these parts that if 2 robins land outside your door it is a sign that you are destined to die a horrible and agonising death within 8 days.








:P

you have watched The Ring too many times.:pac:

Graces7

More likely that one of the robins is going to die a horrible and agonsiing death - from the other robin...

Deep Easterly wrote: »

There is an old wives tale around these parts that if 2 robins land outside your door it is a sign that you are destined to die a horrible and agonising death within 8 days.








:P

nacho libre

Pangea wrote: »

Ha ha god almighty , thanks for that :pac:

you weren't planning on going to Tuam in the next eight days were you?? if not you should be safe Pangea. I tell you the only good thing about that wretched place is the road out of there:P

Griffin87

hes dead right this year

Rougies

nacho libre wrote: »

you weren't planning on going to Tuam in the next eight days were you?? if not you should be safe Pangea. I tell you the only good thing about that wretched place is the road out of there:P

Ah, so that's what that song is really about

jenzz

Just wat he was saying about the animals & food ( they sense it so need to hoard food) the dog all day today has been hiding food everywhere - seriously she never does anything like that..... But there are little piles of it hidden under everything..... She even took the blankey out of her bed filled it with food & put the blankey back in ontop of it.................

Graces7

One of our dogs did that with her Brussels sprouts; thought she had eaten them....

She would never hoard anything; eats everything straight away...

jenzz wrote: »

Just wat he was saying about the animals & food ( they sense it so need to hoard food) the dog all day today has been hiding food everywhere - seriously she never does anything like that..... But there are little piles of it hidden under everything..... She even took the blankey out of her bed filled it with food & put the blankey back in ontop of it.................

Redsunset

IrishTimes.

DONEGAL POSTMAN Michael Gallagher knew his prediction about a white Christmas would come true when he had to abandon his Christmas Eve deliveries because of snow and ice.

The 60-year-old postman from Glenfin forecast a white Christmas a full fortnight before it actually happened. He did so not by tracking weather fronts or through satellite technology, but by the time-honoured means of observing the signs of nature.

Mr Gallagher based his predictions on the observations of an old woman who said when the Blue Stack mountains were bathed in an orange glow from the winter sun, a prolonged cold snap was on its way.

Cattle and sheep were hungry, the blackbirds were coming very close to the houses and the holly berries were picked clean on the bushes: more signs, Mr Gallagher said, that a white Christmas was imminent.

He said it was “just beautiful” to wake up on Christmas morning and find that his forecast had come to pass, but the credit belonged to those from previous generations who had passed their weather lore down to him.

“Past generations lived by the signs and what was around them, which was nature. They didn’t have television or radio to tell them,” he said.

Not being a gambling man, Mr Gallagher eschewed the prospects of making a tidy sum if he had bet on a white Christmas, but his successful forecasting will do no harm for sales of his book, Traditional Weather Signs.

Mr Gallagher is forecasting more of the same weather over the new year. “I can see it getting even worse,” he said.

nacho libre

who are we to argue with him. as for the new year getting worse bring it on:D

Cul a cnoic

Has anyone read Evelyn Cusacks bio on RTE weather site? I don't think that she would agree with Michael Gallaghers methods of predicting the weather.

Pangea

Cul a cnoic wrote: »

Has anyone read Evelyn Cusacks bio on RTE weather site? I don't think that she would agree with Michael Gallaghers methods of predicting the weather.

lol of course they wouldnt!
Gallagher got it spot on, White christmas for me on the day and for many others in the christmas period. Fair play to him ,old reliable.

homersimpson

White Christmas for me

Snow fell for over an hour

He got it spot on :)

cameramonkey

this is donegal on Christmas day http://www.flickr.com/photos/39454894@N02/4222581235/ lots of snow, the postman was correct.

Storm 10

Not only was he spot on but he got a slagging on the Mooney show before Christmas I think it was from the EAgle who more or less dismissed him and his methods of forecasting on the spot.

Wonder who had the last laugh on this :D:D

Pa ElGrande

I'm probably giving away my age here , but does anyone who went to national school in the 70's remember the series "Sean and Maura" there was a story called "Trouble in the mountains", as far as I remember the postman in that story forecast the snow.....so maybe science does not know everything....

Chicken Run

Graces7 wrote: »

Some of the old folk lore is fascinating.

They say that when there is a heavy crop of eg haws it will be a hard winter.

This year the hawthorns were red with them.

It seems that we would say that that is because of a good summer.

But this year, we had a hard May when they were in blossom; even more so for the blackthorn and where we are the whitethorn blossom was a glory but hardly any sloes; too few insects to pollinate in that chilly weather?

Yet the haws were heavy.

now here in East Clare it was a bumper year for sloes (I made loads of sloe gin for Christmas presents )
I was always brought up (in Yorkshire, UK) with the lore "heavy crop of berries, hard winter ahead" and it's certainly proved true this winter...

Mr. Presentable

Six cold days is not a "hard winter"

DrIndy

nipplenuts wrote: »

Six cold days is not a "hard winter"

Who says its only 6? Your teeth may be chattering for another 3 months!

Ever seen "the day after tomorrow"?

Michael usually gets his predictions right - I'm from nearby to him. Whenever he has said a white christmas is on the way, it always is and whenever the summer is good/bad - he's right too!

Chicken Run

nipplenuts wrote: »

Six cold days is not a "hard winter"

been a lot longer than 6 days.... my long-johns are stading upright on a night when I take them off...should really buy another pair so I can wash these :rolleyes:

shiibata

Possibility, he could be on the late late show tonight

Mr. Presentable

nipplenuts wrote: »

Six cold days is not a "hard winter"

Joe Public

Graces7 wrote: »

He didn't mean the sun was brown, but the lowlands...

Poetic turn of phrase...

Am high up in the Blue Stacks and brown it has been the last days.

What's even more impressive about his predections is his total non mention of ECMWF, PVA, hPa, Dewp, FI, GFS, UKMO, WAA, GEM, NAO, CFS, NOGAPS or NCEP.

If I left out any please fill them in:)

M.T. Cranium

MTC

Mike...

howlinwolf wrote: »

looks like the postie should just stick to puttin the right post in the right letterbox for the time being,the outlook is for it to get milder from christmas day on....then again if even a small part of the country gets a
few flakes he will be technically right;).......

think he is a bit more than technically right

ToniTuddle

Has he said anything about when it is going to end?

DrIndy

Last time we were talking to him (I'm locallish to him) which was just after xmas, he said it would last well into the new year. I haven't heard yet when he reckons it will end - just hope its soon! My parents have bloody frozen pipes!

ednwireland

thought he'd predicted a white christmas for the last 10 years

has to be right sometime

devais

Heard that he has predicted that we will have a "good spring" whatever that means....

Pangea

ednwireland wrote: »

thought he'd predicted a white christmas for the last 10 years

has to be right sometime

No actually youll find he has not predicted it for a long time now.