Coldest December in over 30 years

THE Met Éireann weather station at Shannon is set to record its coldest December since 1976 and the cold snap is set to continue into the New Year.

While there wasn’t much snow in Clare over Christmas, there were very low temperatures throughout. On Christmas Eve the highest temperature recorded at Shannon was a mere 0.7 degrees, while it fell as low as –5.6 degrees. December 25 saw temperatures ranging from 4 degrees to –5, while St Stephen’s Day was a little milder with temperatures from 1.7 to 6.3 degrees.
A spokesman for Met Éireann said the current weather conditions haven’t been seen for decades. “At an awful lot of the stations around the country you would have to go back around 20 years to see something similar. Going back further, the months of December 1981 and January ‘82. At Shannon, we don’t have the full figures yet but it looks set to be the coldest December since 1976.”
A spell of cold but dry weather is set to mark the early days of 2010 according to David Rogers of Met Éireann’s forecasting division.
“New Year’s Eve is set to be a dry day with a lot of sunshine, but it’ll be cold and breezy. It’s set to remain mainly dry going into the New Year. There will be a good bit of sunshine but there may be wintry showers too. The bulk of the county will be dry, with light winds, but temperatures will be much below normal with frost at night. That could lead to ice on untreated surfaces.”