Cold Spell Phase 1 Discussion from 6th/7th January

Sharp frost and white car roofs in Bray all night.

2:40am and very heavy 10 minute hail shower in Bray.

The Atlantic is lying down for a nap after all that hard work, but there's no real Siberian connection to these northern highs yet, so we will just have to take what we can get, mixed wintry showers in streamers, maybe snow in one or two locations (out of a hundred). Drive up high and you may see some. Could get a bit of thunder later today in these streamers.

The interesting thing is, none of the Atlantic fronts that try to push in (according to the guidance at any rate) bring much mild air with them, they sort of run out of that before passing 20W and arrive almost border-line cold enough for sleet. Should be a frustrating week ahead for both forecasters and snow lovers but if you like sleet, graupel and other mixed crud, then this is your golden age.

JCX BXC wrote: »

Dublin Airport at 1:30am ~ -1c
Dublin Airport at 2:30am ~ +3c

Fair temperature rise, and without major changes in cloud or wind evident on the METAR.

I see a shower passing to the south of the airport though.

There was a slight increase in wind that may have been just enough to mix out the cold surface layer. It had been very calm around midnight. There was also a lowering of the cirrus at 1 am (from 25;000 to 20,000 ft) which may have led to some temperaure rise later on.

To fill in the gaps the exact winds and temperatures from the hourly synops were

01:00 040 6 kts 0.0 °C dp -0.3
02:00 050 7 kts 0.8 °C dp 0.3
03:00 060 7 kts 3.2 °C dp 2.3
04:00 060 13 kt 4.2 °C dp 2 3

I note that none of the hourly synops all night showed any negative temperature (0.0 at 1 am was the lowest), but still the minimum was reported as -1.0 °C by 6 am, so this must have briefly occurred between 01:00 and 01:30.

carltonleon wrote: »

Cars were frosted over last night at about 9pm here in Swords. So I awoke expecting to find a lovely crisp frosty morning...... what did I find ? Nothing, no frost, not even a hint of it. All gone

Same here I awoke To the same all gone we can’t even get a good frost anymore

George Sunsnow wrote: »

The snow line on these showers coming into Wicklow is above 600 mtrs
I can see a slight dusting on top of Croghan mtn for example
They were heavy so if snow was falling further down it would definitely have settled
So No snow from these where anyone actually lives

Nothing on Djouce, and its 730m ish.

Was surprised to wake up here in D15 to find it 5c and cloudy. Expected 0c and some sun. Got up early anyway to get the "sunrise" out at Pormarnock. All I got was frozen fingers, almost too cold to press the buttons on the camera.

Strong constant wind was coming off the sea with a significant wind chill

Shedbebreezy wrote: »

What's that based on?

Nothing except the infrequency of these events I assume.

Samsgirl wrote: »

A friend in Michigan sent me this last night. Now, that's cold!!!

Wait, the realfeel is warmer that the actual temperature? or maybe the realfeel temp is in F ?

The USA is expected to become springlike in a few days. This 850hpa temp anomaly chart shows unusually mild weather around the Great Lakes and even extraordinarily warm in the Dakotas! Will the Atlantic now calm down and give us a cold spell which in theory is meant to happen? I wouldn't bet on it.

Tis bright, very very bright.

Not that cold either, although in an exposed shaded area the wind carries a bite.

I wonder how low the temperatures will get tonight,met eireann going for a minimum of -5 and MT going for -7.

Bone chilling here in a raw northeast breeze in West mayo.

patneve2 wrote: »

Can't even get a decent hail shower off this Irish Sea flow, all the showers hitting Bray-Greystones.

You're not missing much.

patneve2 wrote: »

Can't even get a decent hail shower off this Irish Sea flow, all the showers hitting Bray-Greystones.

Bray/Greystones was the first and only places in the country to get Heavy Snow on the 26/27th of November 2010. We got 5 inches in 2 hours that night. All from literally one streamer stretching across the Irish Sea from the Lake District to Bray Greystones. Its literally only one of two wind directions that give Bray a long enough sea fetch for streamers positioned where we are in the middle of the east coast. Generally we'll be in the snow shadow of Antrim, IOM or Wales. For many, the remember the 2010 event starting on the 29/30th of Nov or even into December but for Bray it started with 5 inches on the 26/27th. Then we got no more till we got lucky again with the wind/streamer direction in the middle of December.

George Sunsnow wrote: »

Just up the road from the entrance to the Croghan wind farm is a new house being built in the woods and it’s for sale
There’s some view out the back from it

It’s 320 metres above sea level and would get snow a lot (none today up there just hail)
It’s a 10 min drive from the M11
Pictured is the view just now looking out over the Irish Sea from it and Arklow rock is in the top left of the photo
It’ll be heavenly when it’s done

It would be fantastic to live there.
I wonder how much would you have to pay for that view?
On the subject of height, is there anyone living 600 metres above sea level in Ireland?

Small amounts of snow on Lugnaquilla above 800m. Only a dusting of 1-2cm and a lot of exposed frozen ground where anything falling is getting blasted away by wind.

YR.no normally gets Lug spot on but was miles off.
Mountain-forecast.com normally says there's loads of snow when there is none, but this times said none and got it basically right.

Bring out the dead:



We are the dead.

Calibos wrote: »

Bray/Greystones was the first and only places in the country to get Heavy Snow on the 26/27th of November 2010. We got 5 inches in 2 hours that night. All from literally one streamer stretching across the Irish Sea from the Lake District to Bray Greystones. Its literally only one of two wind directions that give Bray a long enough sea fetch for streamers positioned where we are in the middle of the east coast. Generally we'll be in the snow shadow of Antrim, IOM or Wales. For many, the remember the 2010 event starting on the 29/30th of Nov or even into December but for Bray it started with 5 inches on the 26/27th. Then we got no more till we got lucky again with the wind/streamer direction in the middle of December.

False, I had heavy snow starting around 10pm on 26th November and then I woke up to a winter wonderland on the 27th. Man those were great times!