Winter 2019/2020 - General Discussion

Thelonious Monk

Is there any end to this windy period in sight? Seems to be another week of it or so according to forecasts I'm looking at. It's a nightmare for cycling to work.

Gonzo

sryanbruen wrote: »

I did feel Saturday (and Monday to some degree too) was far worse than what Sunday; the arrival of Storm Ciara, brought but then again, I was asleep during the intense rain that passed.

Right now to me, Dennis doesn't look like anything special.

I thought the same too. Winds here were bad on Saturday evening, then Storm Ciara itself did not seem as bad in terms of wind. No branches/trees down in the area. The rain from Storm Ciara was far more noticeable and caused some issues on the roads.

If anything Storm Ciara strengthened as it hit the UK, they certainly got worse affected than we did, and the rain far heavier there too.

Yesterday of course brought many of us our first snow flakes of winter, hopefully they are not the last snowflakes till next winter.

Artane2002

Snowing in Dublin 9, I was out in it and I'm noticing how incredibly wet the snow is. It's not particularly heavy but I'm absolutely drenched.

fritzelly

Mix of snow/sleety snow in Dublin city center

Thelonious Monk

Aaaaand now it's sunny again in Dublin CC. I haven't seen anything like this before, the sheer darkness and sleety snow for 10 minutes and then the sun coming out soon afterwards.

Gonzo

most of that 'snow' that is falling is probably still sleet, about 80% snow, 20% rain so it is very wet indeed. Showers start off as rain and turn to wet snow during heavier bursts. If anything I think today is even more marginal than yesterday.

Clonmel1000

Very heavy wet snow falling here at the moment. The weather really is dreadful even by Irish standards at the moment. Wet cold windy the countryside is saturated. Even for a snow lover and I’m certainly not one you’d be fairly disappointed with the wet mess that’s falling countrywide.

Gonzo

not a nice day here either. Raining fairly heavy at this stage with bits of sleet in it, showers are turning more and more to rain now.

Loughc

So is that it for the snow or should we hold out for anything in the coming weeks?

nacho libre

Loughc wrote: »

So is that it for the snow or should we hold out for anything in the coming weeks?

met.ie
Wednesday night: On Wednesday night, rain will extend northwards to all counties accompanied by strengthening southeasterly winds with some spot flooding. The rain will turn to snow across parts of Connacht and Ulster with accumulations for a time before the snow transitions to rain by Thursday morning.

If you are holding out for a beast from the east, which bring powdery snow and ice days, that ship has sailed for this winter.

We may get conditions similiar to the last two days in the next few weeks.

highdef

Moderate snow in North Kildare, snow is actually quite powdery. Visibility is about 100m

Donegal Storm

sryanbruen wrote: »

I did feel Saturday (and Monday to some degree too) was far worse than what Sunday; the arrival of Storm Ciara, brought but then again, I was asleep during the intense rain that passed.

Right now to me, Dennis doesn't look like anything special.

Pretty much sums up the mess of the current setup, it plays into the media / social medias hands having storms named several days ahead and all the hype and importance given to colour coded warnings.

Loads of hype leading up to Sunday yet it turned out a nice day here with plenty of sunshine and was no more than a blustery day with the odd heavy shower. Then yesterday, nothing much made of it yet it was a brutal evening with 3 hours of constant hail squalls, thunder and lightning and violent gusts.

Artane2002

Some slight hail accumulations on the car after that shower. This cold snap has been pretty good for my location for a polar maritime flow. Not a January 2018 or March 2016 but it didn't stay dry like it usually does.

esposito

Donegal Storm wrote: »

Pretty much sums up the mess of the current setup, it plays into the media / social medias hands having storms named several days ahead and all the hype and importance given to colour coded warnings.

Loads of hype leading up to Sunday yet it turned out a nice day here with plenty of sunshine and was no more than a blustery day with the odd heavy shower. Then yesterday, nothing much made of it yet it was a brutal evening with 3 hours of constant hail squalls, thunder and lightning and violent gusts.

Have to agree with the above. All these named storms and weather warnings play into the media’s hands. Unfortunately that’s what we have to put up with these days.

I have zero interest in these mediocre windstorms like the one coming up this weekend.

Mortelaro

High ground about 5 miles west of Arklow this afternoon
Same there yesterday

Oneiric 3

The only redeeming feature of this winter so far is the number of observed days with thunder. For this alone I'd give it a 3/10, but as I have said before, these polar type westerlies are just brutal for miserable feeling cold, not so much 'officially', but in the actual sense in how it is felt. A proper Arctic northerly wouldn't feel as penetrating as this.

appledrop

I would agree that storms in general are over hyped but dont agree about Sunday.

Saturday in North County Dublin was sunny for most of day but it was windy.

However Sunday was horrendous. At last check we had over 22mm rain + winds were howling in every direction + we had thunder + squalls all day. It was worse than Storm Opehila which was definitely overhyped for Dublin area anyway.

Gonzo

nacho libre wrote: »

met.ie

If you are holding out for a beast from the east, which bring powdery snow and ice days, that ship has sailed for this winter.

We may get conditions similiar to the last two days in the next few weeks.

I reckon that ship sailed a few weeks ago. No blocking, no SSW, all other ingredients completely against us. Outlook over the next month looks poor enough as well from a cold perspective with mostly mild weather and the westerlies continuing.

Even if we got an easterly around mid March or end of March, any snow that falls would melt fairly rapidly. Even in March 2013 none of the snowfalls lasted past midday here, we had several cm's some nights and once the sun came out it made short work of any lying snow.

nacho libre

Gonzo wrote: »

Even if we got an easterly around mid March or end of March, any snow that falls would melt fairly rapidly. Even in March 2013 none of the snowfalls lasted past midday here, we had several cm's some nights and once the sun came out it made short work of any lying snow.

Ah yeah even in March 2018 with temperatures below freezing, the snow still melted during the day. The depth of cold was remarkable for the time of year, but you were left thinking if only we had this in January or even early February. I think we are overdue a proper cold spell in the heart of winter at this stage. Maybe next winter will deliver!

Donegal Storm

appledrop wrote: »

I would agree that storms in general are over hyped but dont agree about Sunday.

Saturday in North County Dublin was sunny for most of day but it was windy.

However Sunday was horrendous. At last check we had over 22mm rain + winds were howling in every direction + we had thunder + squalls all day. It was worse than Storm Opehila which was definitely overhyped for Dublin area anyway.

Was the heavy rain not mainly Saturday evening & overnight? I remember waking up around 9am or so and most of the rain had already cleared the east coast by then, leaving a blustery sunny day with only a few showers. Wasn't really online much though so not sure, might have been worse down your way

Donegal Storm

nacho libre wrote: »

Ah yeah even in March 2018 with temperatures below freezing, the snow still melted during the day. The depth of cold was remarkable for the time of year, but you were left thinking if only we had this in January or even early February. I think we are overdue a proper cold spell in the heart of winter at this stage. Maybe next winter will deliver!

As a few of us keep complaining about, we're surely due a good northerly one of these years?

Most of the newer members of the forum have probably never even heard the term 'toppler' as they don't even show up on the models anymore, used to be a fairly regular feature but slushy westerlies are about as good as its gotten in the past decade (apart from March '18 obviously!)

sryanbruen

Donegal Storm wrote: »

Was the heavy rain not mainly Saturday evening & overnight? I remember waking up around 9am or so and most of the rain had already cleared the east coast by then, leaving a blustery sunny day with only a few showers. Wasn't really online much though so not sure, might have been worse down your way

I was asleep like I mentioned during the intense rain associated with the narrow band, Casement recorded 13.1mm in the hour 8-9. Not really a remarkable fall in the grand scheme of things but have to go back to 24th October 2011 for a larger hourly total than that at the station.

I went down to the coast around Portmarnock for high tide and capture some wave photos - was relatively disappointed, Poolbeg had worse as usual. At that time, the "squall" was passing eastward so I was greeted with quite ominous skies like that below but it then brightened up with a few light showers. This continued through the day with a heavier shower or two through the afternoon.

https://twitter.com/sryanbruenphoto/status/1227178788905275392

nacho libre

I don't have a rain gauge, but after Saturday's very heavy rainfall, there were fields flooded around here that had not flooded in a long time.

appledrop

Donegal Storm wrote: »

Was the heavy rain not mainly Saturday evening & overnight? I remember waking up around 9am or so and most of the rain had already cleared the east coast by then, leaving a blustery sunny day with only a few showers. Wasn't really online much though so not sure, might have been worse down your way

Well I have a toddler so was awake at 7.30am +so I seen the torrential rain until 10am! It wasn't just the rain though the wind was unreal around the whole house. Also never experienced the squalls that we had in years.

SleetAndSnow

Frost after forming on the cars now in Cork City so its cold enough out. Netweather still shows sleet showers though, wonder if it snowed would it stick to the newly frosted cars?

Darwin

Our local river burst it’s banks after the rain Saturday night, there must have been really intense rainfall upstream in the Slieve Bloom mountains. We have a small millrace nearby and it looked like the river Shannon on Sunday morning.

Goldfinch8

nacho libre wrote: »

I don't have a rain gauge, but after Saturday's very heavy rainfall, there were fields flooded around here that had not flooded in a long time.

There was a lot of rain alright in Mayo and plenty of lying water in fields locally. I recorded 38mms on Saturday alone in Ballyvary. That does not take into account what fell in the early hours of Sunday morning. I know that another forum poster (Mayo Mick) had a much more impressive rainfall total for the whole event from his personal weather station further east in the county. A lot of this water found its way quickly into the Moy catchment and resulted in a very big flood that peaked at just under 4 metres (3.991 to be precise) at Ballylahan bridge near Straide at 14.30pm on Sunday. This is a very big height when one considers that the record height for the river level here between 1964-2018 according to OPW figures is 4.634 metres which was reached on the 6th of December 2015 in the aftermath of Storm Desmond. The river did turn quickly on Sunday but the Gweestion and Trimogue tributaries were still well in the fields yesterday morning near Ballymiles.
As for the bit of a cold plunge that has followed in recent days - fairly slobbery to say the least!

Gonzo

heavy frost now here in Meath, everything frozen outside, roads are going to be dangerous in the morning with lots of freezing surface water.

Kutebride

It's a letal combo in Meath. Snow left a very fine layer & then it froze on top.
Main roads seem ok as expect gritters were out.

US2

Kutebride wrote: »

It's a letal combo in Meath. Snow left a very fine layer & then it froze on top.
Main roads seem ok as expect gritters were out.

Same in Limerick frozen sleet on the ground lethal.