COLDEST NIGHTS IN IRELAND - the reason

So far in Sligo the coldest night of the Autumn/Winter season occurred on October 12th last. The temperature dipped to 6.4c which is nothing spectacular really. weathergossip will be keeping an eye on these figures. Oh, also so far the coldest night in any met eireann weather station has been minus (yes minus)0.7c at Mullingar Weather Station on 6th October. Why is it so cold here I hear you ask?

It has all to do with the Atlantic influence that places like Sligo benefit from in Winter that keep temperatures relatively high as opposed to the Eastern side of Ireland due to the build up of cloud that we get along the Atlantic. The flipside of this is that we also experience a lot more rain than the East 90% of the time. In Summertime the downside also is that the cloud spilling in from the Atlantic leaves temperatures relatively low especially in the Northwest. This Summer it was 16c here in Sligo a lot of the same days that it was 19c in Kilkenny for example.

So back to the coldest night of the year so far. It is not exceptional nor will it be probably. Last Winter for example the coldest night in Sligo was minus 4.2c but of course the weathergossip weather station only recorded a low of minus 1.4c. This is due to the fact that it is located in the back garden of my house and if it were to be removed to the front it is feared that it may not be as safe there. So at times the minima can be a bit minimalistic but I will let you know when they are out.

By searching the link http://www.weathergossip.blogspot.com/ a longer range picture of the Winter is beginning to emmerge and (thats not how you spell emmerge is it) and the dryness and benigness of the Autumn has become apparent. You may remember that weathergossip predicted the Autumn to be dry some months back. We told you that from September 9th things would be dry and indeed this has turned out to be the case. For more on this you can go to www.weathergossip.com/autumn.html

Finally a new addition to http://www.weathergossip.com/ is the new snow forecast for all of you snow lovers out there. It is a new idea where the next day that it is likely to snow in Ireland is put on the site and changed when its wrong - no! I was not meant to write that no but the next day of expected Wintry type precipation is put on the site and the snow lovers amongst you can then get excited and buy the carrots to stick in the noses of your snowmen. But Sligo people and Irish people in general, do not get over excited. Ireland only ever gets 2 - 4 days of good snow a day on average in the last decade. The snow link is only a guide to a day where there is hope that snow will fall and before I forget that ever important link it is www.weathergossip.com/snow.html