22/12/2021: this article has been updated here
The current spell of settled weather will come to an end this week as high pressure is replaced by low pressure on Wednesday, with more unsettled weather expected in the lead up to Christmas Day.
Met Éireann meteorologist, Emer Flood, said: “There is more confidence that we will be under relatively mild air for Christmas Day with a spell of rain moving up from the southwest during the day. Unfortunately for those wishing for a white Christmas, the chance of snow in Ireland now looks very slim. There will likely be a colder interlude early next week, but the mild air is signalled to quickly return from the southwest for the final days of 2021. There is still likely to be some changes in the exact details over the next day or so, keep up to date with our forecasts at met.ie.”
Why is there uncertainty?
The main uncertainly later this Christmas Week lies in the boundary between cold and milder air and its position in relation to Ireland. Based on latest forecast runs, it appears unlikely we’ll have snowfall this Christmas, with most of it likely away from the island of Ireland, and possibly over the mountains and highest of hills across Scotland. It should be said though, any displacement in this boundary of air can make for a completely different outlook. So with this in mind do keep an eye on the latest Met Éireann forecast for weather over Christmas and beyond.
ECMWF Forecast chart for Christmas Day 2021 shows a mild airmass (green) across Ireland with a colder airmass (blue) over northeast Scotland.
The Met Éireann Podcast ‘White Christmas’ Episode
Listen back to our December 2019 White Christmas episode of The Met Éireann Podcast where Liz and Noel dig into all things snow! We hear about how often we get a white Christmas, how frequent snowfall is in general, and review some of the notable big snow events we’ve experienced in Ireland and around the world.
Whatever the weather please follow the public health advice and help keep everybody safe from COVID-19.
For the most accurate and up to date forecast for your area on the Island of Ireland go to met.ie. The latest weather advisories and warnings for Ireland are on the Met Éireann Warnings page. These services and more are available on our free app – available from the App store for iPhone, and Play store for Android.
