Meteorologists may say a white Christmas is unlikely, but we’ll be quietly wishing for secluded days marvelling at grassy mints, snow whites and blackened bark.
A drifting fall of snow on Christmas Day in Ireland is a rare thing. According to Met Eireann, the likelihood of snowfalling in Ireland on December 25th is once every 5.9 years.
Extreme heat and cold are both uncommon in Ireland. This is despite sitting on the 53rd parallel north, the same latitude as the snowy wonderlands of Alaska and British Columbia. Irish winters tend to be cool and windy, and snowfall lasts on the ground for only a day or two.
But, while storybook snowfalls are not likely, there is a special beauty in the type of light drift Ireland excels at. Next time it occurs, watch how this snowfall changes the colour of the landscape. Deep grassy fields turn to icy mint and snow drifts expose animal footprints and tractor tyre tracks. It whitewashes the hillside, exposing ridges, ditches and lazy beds, and melting snow blackens the bark of leafless trees. You try to make hard snowballs but it melts and evaporates in your hand. By lunchtime, the snow has melted and it all the more beautiful for its transience.
Note: This text of this story appears in the November-December 2019 issue of “Image Interiors and Living” as part of our regular “Nature’s Palette” series in this magazine. x