Winter has arrived

Met Eireann has delivered a frosty National Outlook for the coming week. Today was brilliantly sunny, but the cold has begun to descend upon us. Tonight will be our first significant frost, and it will continue to get colder through the week. I even picked out the word #sniachta in the Irish language forecast today. The skies have been clear enough to see the moon and the ISS passing near it. Wednesday will be the Cold Moon. 

This is a jet not the ISS which appears as a moving star.

I cannot believe it's already well into December -- time seems to be accelerating. November turned out to be similar to the prior two years, with average rainfall and mild temperatures.

Alex had been installing the crosswires so we could finally train the vines properly on the trellises, but it got too wet to drive on the land or to even walk it. Here is the forecast for the coming week:

Overview: Very cold with widespread frost and icy stretches on roads. Plenty of dry weather is expected but there will be wintry showers at times, particularly in the north and northwest.

• Tuesday night: Very cold with widespread frost, as temperatures drop to between -3 and +2 degrees. It will be generally dry and clear and there will be a light northerly wind.
• Wednesday: Cold with temperatures only reaching 2 to 5 degrees, in a light north to northwest wind. It will be dry and sunny in most places, but there will be scattered showers in northern and western coastal areas. The showers will turn increasingly wintry later in the day, with snow likely on high ground.
• Wednesday night: Bitterly cold with temperatures falling below zero degrees countrywide and as low as -3 or -4 degrees in some places. There will be a widespread sharp to severe frost and ice on untreated surfaces. Showers will fall as sleet or snow in some areas.
• Thursday: Very cold with temperatures remaining in low single figures. A mix of sunny spells and well-scattered showers of sleet, snow and hail. 
• Thursday night: Another bitterly cold night with widespread sharp to severe frost and icy stretches. Minimum temperatures of -4 to -2 degrees in a light north to northwest wind. Most areas will be dry and clear but there will be wintry showers at times near the coast.
• Friday: Staying very cold with temperatures remaining in low single figures. Mostly dry with sunny spells, but wintry showers will persist near coasts, especially in the north.
• Further outlook: Little change expected for the weekend; staying very cold with some wintry showers and widespread frost by night.

 

Everyone is dormant.