Weather goes from mild to wild and back with balmy start to New Year
This festive week’s weather rollercoaster saw Christmas Day’s record 14.4C temperature followed by 125kmh storms, closed bridges and pounding waves on Wednesday in parts of the country — and then yesterday a pleasant 11C.
But the good news for party-goers is that tomorrow will see a balmy day and night reach as high as 12C by day and 9C after dark — warmer than April’s average Dublin daytime peak temperature of 11.4C, and night time’s usual 4.8C minimum.
Forecasters described the mild New Year as one of the “most unusual weather events in Ireland in many years.”
The mild weather is set to lure bumper crowds to midnight celebrations around the country.
Met Éireann said tomorrow’s weather will be mainly cloudy and breezy, with little rain in hours most will be awake — although revellers planning on an all-nighter could be soaked by lashing rain which will sweep across the country before dawn.
But the conditions are a giant contrast to some previous snow and ice-hit New Year’s celebrations.
New Year’s Day will be rainy to start before clearing, with temperatures a little cooler than New Year’s Eve.
Positive Weather Solutions senior forecaster Jonathan Powell said: “This mild spell is right up there with the most unusual weather events we have seen in Ireland for many years. I can’t recall anything like it in recent years.
A Met Éireann forecast said: “New Year’s Eve will be mild with highs of 9-12C, breezy, mostly cloudy with some rain but generally small amounts and some bright or short sunny spells.
“The night will be a mild end to the year, with lowest temperatures of 6-9C and dry spells with just patches of light drizzle here and there — but indications suggest a spell of very wet weather will spread from the Atlantic late in the night. New Year’s Day will have some heavy rain in the morning, but fresher, clearer, more showery weather later.”
