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07th Dec 2022

Top counties most likely to get snow this Christmas have been revealed

Emily Mullen

Could we be getting one this year?

It’s not often that Ireland sees snow on Christmas Day, but it’s happened before and it could happen again.

If you do indeed have your fingers crossed for a white Christmas, then you should probably know that snow is more likely in some counties than others.

PR agency Legacy Communications delved into the data using TimeAndDate.com and Met Eireann to see which counties are more likely to see snow on 25 December, and perhaps unsurprisingly, counties in the north have a higher chance, with Donegal and Tyrone leading the way, while Kerry and Waterford trailed in last place. The research ranked the counties in order from most likely to least likely by examining how often in the past 10 years each county exhibited the conditions necessary for snow to occur.

Legacy consulted with expert Alan O’Reilly from Carlow Weather to determine exactly why it’s so difficult to predict whether or not it will snow on Christmas in Ireland.

He said: “When you look towards Christmas day then, people always talk about a White Christmas, it’s very very difficult to forecast that. We haven’t had a White Christmas since 2010, statistically, we would have had one every six years, so we are long overdue for a White Christmas. That doesn’t mean that we are going to see one but it does mean with the cold in December and maybe the chances are that we have a higher chance this year of a White Christmas if that cold can hang around.”

Alan also outlined why coastal counties are less likely to see snow than inland ones.

“Being very close to the coast does mean you’re very close to the water which does mean that the air is modified and it might not be as cold on the coast,” he said. “Very often in winter you might get snow in-land but you won’t get snow on the coast because the air is being warmed by the sea.”

Alan explained that the south and southwest tend to stay milder due to warm air, while the north draws down from an Arctic airmass.

Here is the full ranking:

  1. Donegal
  2. Tyrone
  3. Westmeath
  4. Fermanagh
  5. Clare
  6. Laois
  7. Longford
  8. Offaly
  9. Roscommon
  10. Wexford
  11. Antrim
  12. Armagh
  13. Cavan
  14. Louth
  15. Monaghan
  16. Wicklow
  17. Carlow
  18. Derry
  19. Mayo
  20. Tipperary
  21. Cork
  22. Down
  23. Galway
  24. Leitrim
  25. Meath
  26. Kilkenny
  27. Sligo
  28. Dublin
  29. Kildare
  30. Limerick
  31. Derry
  32. Waterford

This article originally appeared on Her.ie. 

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