Much colder, wintry showers, some of snow Easter Sunday 2021 onward

Looking at the 850 temps long range, both ECM and GFS struggle to get them above 0 at any point until the end of FI and most of that between -4 and -8.

Absolute miserable shíte. Spring? What spring?

Nqp15hhu wrote: »

It’s annoying because I have no idea what the actual maximum was for my records. In February I had this same issue, temps were about 2c above the actual level, there would be rapid drops as soon as the cloud went in.

The other reason why I know it’s wrong is because the dew point is too high compared to other stations.

(It says 2c but everywhere else is about -2c)

Sensor exposed to sunlight?

Storm 10 wrote: »

Shetland webcams

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.shetlandwebcams.com/&ved=2ahUKEwiD3YidmefvAhWUonEKHRS5DSAQFnoECAUQAg&usg=AOvVaw0KkSO-bu7iJ7hN9tYXNuWC

These are fantastic! Thanks for sharing.

April snow used to be nothing too unusual with most Irish stations averaging snow to fall on at least 1 April day a year, north naturally closer to 2 as compared to south and southwest which is closer to 0.

Places had a bit of snow falling as recent as early April 2019 though admittedly not very widespread.

The most well-known April snow event is that of April 1917 which brought 48-72 hours of constant drifting snow in the west of the country and gave unimagineable scenes to counties like Mayo and Clare that remain unmatched to this day in mid-winter. There were further days of falling snow up to mid-month too with stations getting close to 10 days of falling snow and a few days of snow lying also despite the strength of the April sun.

Other years to note for April snow for various reasons for either recollections or years that stand out for stats off the top of my head:

1966 - Widespread reports of sleet and snow, away from southern regions, on the 14th and 15th with low pressure to the south and unusually low maximum temperatures for the time of year in the low to mid single digits. Only got to 1.6C all day on 15th April at Clones.

1994 - RTÉ Archives report on it here. A white Easter Saturday on 2nd April for some with wintry showers from a blustery polar maritime northwesterly airflow.

1998 - A cold spell coincided with Easter giving away to icy road conditions, some snow and sleet. An inch of snow fell at Ballyvarney, Kerry and light snow fell in Cork, Galway, Tipperary and Donegal around Good Friday (April 10th). Minimum temperatures were also notably low including Casement, Dublin getting down to -5.5C on the 10th which was the lowest temperature of the 'winter' and its lowest April temp on record. Mullingar had a grass minimum of -10.5C on the 13th.

1999 - A gale force northerly wind on the 14th brought heavy wintry showers of sleet and snow to northern and eastern parts of the country. Dublin Airport recorded over 2 inches of snowfall. Road conditions were reported to be 'very severe' along the east coast and in the midlands. Rail services had to be cancelled temporarily.

2008 - There were wintry showers bringing a dusting of snow to many places early on 6th April associated with a cold north to northeasterly airflow. However, any accumulations were less than an inch. Conditions had been relatively mild a few days prior. Further wintry showers occurred including hail, sleet and snow on other days such as the 7th and 13th. Classic spring or April showers.

That's just a selection of years of course and there would be many more with snow at some point somewhere in the country including but not limited to 2005, 2000, 1995, 1992, 1990, 1989, 1987, 1986, 1983, 1979, 1977 and 1975. So April snow not as unusual as it might be made out to be, what's more unusual is if it accumulates to much like in 1917 which was a different kettle of fish altogether. Pretty typical for at least some kind of snow to be mixed in with the proverbial April showers that we so often get at this time of year - well except of late that is with some pretty dry Aprils and others like 2018 just pure Atlantic driven.

Some light graupel in west Galway.

5 or 6 snow showers throughout the day but they all died out just as they were beginning to accumulate, just didn't last long enough. Always nice to see snow falling regardless. After dark will hopefully be a different story.

Max of 8.6C
Few snow flurries and a decent hail shower
Fair chill in the wind.

Currently 3.7C and dropping off quickly

I'm surprised there is no yellow warning for Donegal etc when all of NI has a snow warning for tonight for possibly 2 to 4cm in places . Met.ie regional forecast for Ulster mentions accumulations as well.

Nationally maybe a dusting in a good few places by Dawn. Will have no trouble sticking to a frozen ground.

19:38

Tonight
Scattered wintry showers will mainly affect Ulster, Connacht and north Leinster early tonight, but will drift further south overnight. Very cold with a widespread frost as temperatures fall to between -3 and +2 degrees, coldest in Munster and Leinster where there will be long clear spells

Ballyclare Co Antrim

For sryanbruen, enjoyed reading your list of historic snowfalls in April, any way of finding out what happened around 24-26 April of 1908, the only clue there is that CET values were extremely low, one day averaged 0.8 C.

Shower of hail. 2.1c was snowing earlier but end of week could be more productive as high further out West than now. Still that too could change in the timeframe