Winter 2024/25 - General Discussion

Take care anyone travelling around more eastern areas on Friday morning due to possible stormy conditions from a southerly direction, especially after weaken trees, poles etc. No named Storm or anything but brief squally conditions might catch people unawares.

This has been the worst week of the winter in my view. I've got wet a few times. It's hard to get a window to do anything. It's kinda what I expect in February though. I think the folks in the east are being punished for having such a sunny January.

Overall I would take this winter every year. Lots of high pressure and dry weather and a few notable events. The snow in November was technically Autumn though.

Mild today but heavy showers.

Wind warning issued

Xmas was dry for the most part. Superb for outdoors. Much much nicer than Xmas 2023.

Cool and sunny is all you can ask for in January. What were you expecting?

From MetE for January 2025.

Sunshine: Above average, sunniest in the East.

All available sunshine totals were above their LTA. Percentage of monthly sunshine values ranged from 135% (71.1 hours) at Shannon Airport, Co Clare to 151% (81.1 hours) at Casement Aerodrome, Co Dublin (its sunniest January on record (length 61 years). Monthly sunshine totals ranged from 40.4 hours (no LTA comparison*) at Belmullet, Co Mayo to 89.7 hours (no LTA comparison*) at Dublin Airport, Co Dublin. The highest number of daily sunshine hours recorded this month was 8.0 hours at Johnstown Castle, Co Wexford on Friday 31st.

The weather after the big storm was lovely. Dry and sunny which helped hugely with the cleanup and repairs. The snow event was also historic for many.

February a long time ago now was one of the drier months. These days it's either autumnal rains or early spring in temperatures. The mean temperature of February from 2019 to 2024 in Dublin was significantly milder than the March average from 1961-1990. We've had a run of some very wet Februaries since 2020 - most notably of course the one I just mentioned, 2020, which was the wettest on record for many. The exception being 2023 which was very dry and the first half of February 2021 was cold but the exceptionally mild second half ensured it was another milder than average month. 2025 looks to be going in a similar direction but less extremely so - the cold was never anything to write home about and I'd call it more chilly than cold and the mild won't be as mild as the second half of 2021.

Think the east will be making up a good bit in the loss of sunshine now between rain bands and showers. The pattern coming is normally quite a sunny but windy one on this side of the country. It's been a long time since I've seen rainbow conditions here in Dublin 13. There was one day in early February, think it was the 4th, but I avoided all the showers.

Serious squall in D24. Hailstones, thunder and lightning.

Yeah, here's an extract from the Met Feb 2020 summary. 16 out of the 25 synoptic stations had their wettest February on record.

The wonderful spring of 2020 did not take effect until the second half of March. High pressure ridged up from the south on Paddy's Day bringing at first cloudy, mild conditions then clearer air came from the east with occasional fronts reaching the west for a time. The first half of March 2020 was changeable with sunshine and showers fairly frequent. The first lockdown began on 27th March.

well today is grim in Dublin, hailstones at the moment. Will we get a sunny summer in return for all this suffering we’ve endured in winter?

I'm just back from a fabulous few days in Copenhagen and Malmo. Temps ranged from -5C to 2C.The -5C was just too cold to stay out for long in,you'd need the kind of clothes that few of us living in Ireland would bother investing in. But I really loved the 0C to 2C, especially as the sky was a deep blue with wall to wall sun, it really was stunning and once you were well wrapped up and indulged in the odd piping hot choclate 😀 it was really comfortable. It had been snowing there, so was a winter wonderland and bliss for winters fans like me. Back home now to double digit temps, which I hate with a passion in winter😫 as I find the humidity here very draining. In the dry 0C in Denmark I found it just wonderful to spend hours exploring outdoors.

I need an annual dose of proper winter cold just as I do proper summer heat.

I've been in -25 and all of that still applies. I actually found a proper winter parka was all I needed in addition to my normal winter clothes.

Tomorrow, 21 February, always marks the time I stop looking for wintry weather. You're roughly a month from the Spring Equinox and 2 months from the Winter Solstice.

Everything moves against really wintry weather, things like ice days. The BFTE 2018 had no ice days as far as I recall.

Copenhagen is a great city.

There is a massive different between a 'dry' cold and a 'wet' cold. Obviously the humidity levels are the difference but wet cold would be perceived as much more penetrating and uncomfortable while dry cold would feel sharper but less oppressive. I remember being in Berlin with -15C with low humidity and it was much more comfortable than a 0C in Ireland with high humidity. For example, last week had a very wet cold here and it would cut through you (was around 4-7C) but there were colder days in January (minus C) that were much drier and more pleasant. Windchill is also a factor - think about wind on wet skin or clothes.

Canadians will often come to Ireland and say the cold wet weather hovering around 0C is much more uncomfortable than the double digit minus figures they generally get in winter.

My advice…merino wool base layer.

+100 for light lambs wood jumper/layer somewhere ... night and day difference between that and cotton/synthetic. Warm and breathable.

It did?

Derrygreenagh in fact did not get above -3.7C on 28th February 2018, the lowest max for the month of February in this country on record…

1st and 2nd March also had ice day conditions at numerous stations. There was also one station that had ice day conditions on the 18th March. These are the only March ice days on record in Ireland since digitised records began in 1942.