{"id":8125,"date":"2013-11-20T15:42:35","date_gmt":"2013-11-20T15:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greensideup.ie\/?p=8125"},"modified":"2014-09-12T23:55:35","modified_gmt":"2014-09-12T22:55:35","slug":"irish-weather-forecast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greensideup.ie\/irish-weather-forecast\/","title":{"rendered":"Will the 2013\/14 Irish winter be another long, cold one?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Snowy<\/a>

Our snowy lane on the 19th November 2013<\/p><\/div>\n

Can we expect a white Christmas in Ireland?<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the unexpected sign of snow hitting our hill-top this week, I immediately turned to the weather forecast to see what might be in store over the coming days and months.<\/p>\n

First of all, because the Callan community gardeners mentioned him on Monday, my first Google search was for New Zealand weather guru Ken Ring. I found a short Radio Kerry podcast <\/a>where his long-term forecast suggested hard frosts at the end of November, rain and frosts in December but nothing too substantial in the way of snow until mid February with frosts continuing until May – all in all, a typical Irish winter.<\/p>\n

I then turned to Weather Online<\/a> where nothing exciting is expected this week in terms of snow, but it will be chilly with night-time temperatures down to 0\u00b0C and daytime at 8\u00b0C.<\/p>\n

The Met\u00a0\u00c9ireann website isn’t offering much more in terms of exciting weather news, with maximum temperatures<\/a>\u00a0expected to reach 7\u00b0C in County Carlow and although their qualified meteorologists\u00a0may be the experts, on the whole I don’t find their on-line information very easy to fathom.<\/p>\n

\"Snow<\/a>

A snowy surprise was in store for us this week in the Greenside Up garden<\/p><\/div>\n

Finally I came across the Irish Weather Network which is my favourite so far<\/a>. Not only did it give me detailed information about the weather forecast this week, with wintry showers and sharp frosts expected, there’s also a page explaining how to predict snow,<\/a> which might be handy next time I’m worried about making that dreaded school run down the slippery hills! I found their help invaluable a couple of years ago when we experienced the severe snow, as well as\u00a0correct to within hours on their snowfall predictions.<\/p>\n

So, back to the question about whether we’ll be experiencing a white Christmas, a harsh winter or long cold spring, I’m thinking I should have stuck with RTE’s Evelyn Cusack for advice, who shared a brilliant quote over the weekend during her evening weather forecast.<\/p>\n