Storm Ciara - Strong Winds & Potential Snow **TECHNICAL DISCUSSION**

q85dw7osi4lebg

Light dusting of snow in Collon Co Louth this morning.

sjb25

Cantona's Collars wrote: »

Well it's heavy,sleety rain in Enniscorthy. Utterly miserable.

Starting to change to sleet now was nice for 15min

Mortelaro

Very heavy in Arklow and settling
Big flakes
Currently 0.9c
Dewpoint-2c

Place is very white now

Nqp15hhu

Well... what a slushy, marginal mess. Despite temps remaining around 2c we have struggled to remain as snow here.

The snow line is about 200m and rising. Above 300m there is a proper covering.

Tonight may bring snow but I’m not confident! It’s surprising how marginal it is. I guess the Atlantic saturated that lower layer, despite the cold temperatures.

Nqp15hhu

Oscar Bravo wrote: »

Knock gusting 41 knots with a dew point of -4 and a temperature of 5 degrees. Windchill!

That’s odd. Dew points are close to 0c here and it is very marginal!

Nqp15hhu

Donegal Storm wrote: »

Letterkenny is built on two sides of a valley, lower parts of the town are pretty much at sea level, higher parts around 200m. I'm at around 90m I think.

Snow mostly melted again now though some nice heavy hail squalls keeping the place white

Thanks. It’s turned very marginal with sleety snow at 2c.

Tonight will probably be when it turns wintry proper.

JanuarySnowstor

Am hearing there's heavy snow on Cork to Dublin motorway near Thurles see corksafetyalerts

Nqp15hhu

The cold spell we had about two weeks ago was much better than this despite the warmer air? Bit odd.

We managed an inch or two at sea level.

Is the marginality down to the strong winds?

lucy2010

JanuarySnowstor wrote: »

Am hearing there's heavy snow on Cork to Dublin motorway near Thurles see corksafetyalerts

I really hope your saying told ya so 🤣🤣🤣

US2

Nqp15hhu wrote: »

The cold spell we had about two weeks ago was much better than this despite the warmer air? Bit odd.

We managed an inch or two at sea level.

Its early yet.

brettmirl

Bad snow in Kilkenny apparently. Heard from my brother that they are sending the kids home from school

Nqp15hhu

US2 wrote: »

Its early yet.

It is, but I expected the showers to be of snow given that it is only 2c. It looks to me that there has been a lot of mixing/saturation and modification in this air mass.

Rebelbrowser

brettmirl wrote: »

Bad snow....

No such thing!:)

Graces7

THUNDER!!!!! And gone very very dark..... West Mayo offshore.. had a little hail a while back....HUGE hailstones now..... OH MY!

More thunder and the power on and off..

Rebelbrowser

Nqp15hhu wrote: »

It is, but I expected the showers to be of snow given that it is only 2c. It looks to me that there has been a lot of mixing and modification in this air mass.

Hi, I think you are in the North West. If so dew points are actually higher there than in a swathe below you from the mid west to the east coast.

Nqp15hhu

Rebelbrowser wrote: »

Hi, I think you are in the North West. If so dew points are actually higher there than in a swathe below you from the mid west to the east coast.

I have looked at the radar and it’s a real mix everywhere. I don’t think the cold air has fully embedded.

Nqp15hhu

Looks to be marginal in Scotland too.

Dew points falling as showers clear here but rising within the showers. 🀔

Forecast does show heavy snow for me from 3am tonight but heavy rain before that. So maybe a warm sector?

Gaoth Laidir

Oscar Bravo wrote: »

Knock gusting 41 knots with a dew point of -4 and a temperature of 5 degrees. Windchill!

Nqp15hhu wrote: »

That’s odd. Dew points are close to 0c here and it is very marginal!

It's wet-bulb temperature that's important, not dewpoint. A dewpoint of -4 with a temperature of +5 means a wbt of around +1.4. WBT above about 0.5 °C is usually the cut-off, except for heavy showers.

Here are the current wbts. Knock's is currently +1.3 °C.

https://weather.us/observations/ireland/wet-bulb-temperature/20200210-1100z.html

Nqp15hhu

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

It's wet-bulb temperature that's important, not dewpoint. A dewpoint of -4 with a temperature of +5 means a wbt of around +1.4. WBT above about 0.5 °C is usually the cut-off, except for heavy showers.

Here are the current wbts. Knock's is currently +1.3 °C.

https://weather.us/observations/ireland/wet-bulb-temperature/20200210-1100z.html

Yup, it’s incredibly marginal. What do you think of our chances tonight?

Gaoth Laidir

Nqp15hhu wrote: »

Yup, it’s incredibly marginal. What do you think of our chances tonight?

Better

Nqp15hhu

In these sorts of air masses, no matter the situation, the cut off always seems to be 200/300m... why always that level exactly?

SleetAndSnow

Highly unlikely there will be much snow in cork city today , maybe a passing shower. Latest TAF features hail or rain showers. Temp at current is also about 6/7 degrees with a few point of around 3 degrees. North cork however has a chance along with the west of the county.

We live in hope

Timistry

A few thunderstorms popping up in the west at the moment.

Storm 10

Timistry wrote: »

A few thunderstorms popping up in the west at the moment.

Lots of Thunder in Galway now

jackrussel

wheres all the technical stuff gone?

m17

Durrow

Gaoth Laidir

The GFS is still slightly undergoing the thickness values this morning. The 12Z Valentia sounding gave thickness there of 526 dam but the 06Z GFS forecast had it at 524 dam. This cold bias will likely only get larger when the cold air arrives later. The ECM has it more in line with observations for now.

HighLine

A few photos and videos of the conditions up at the Sally Gap in Wicklow on this twitter thread. (Click on the tweet to see other pics & videos)

https://twitter.com/IrelandSkycam/status/1226859370732040194?s=20

Gonzo

it's been dry here in Meath since yesterday evening, but looks to be a shower approaching at last.

raining now with bits of sleet mixed in with it.

Nqp15hhu

The net weather radar shows rain and sleet over Southern Ireland.