A White Christmas for some, but not all of us!
by Alex Deakin
Our first snow of this winter season fell today across the southwest of England and Wales, but as per usual it’s a short sharp shock for a few and the wintry mixed cleared across to the near continent by early morning.
Winter storms further south across the Alps though have been causing chaos for the women’s World Cup in the French ski resort of Val d’Isere. Constant snow falls and gusty winds made it impossible to prepare the course and forced organisers to cancel the entire weekend’s racing. Safety nets were blown away and visibility was very poor at the top of the piste. This is however good news for those planning a Christmas break to the numerous alpine resorts, it’s been a good start to the season, with fresh snow and after a snowy start to the new week, clear skies will mean superb ski conditions.
Linked to the same depression, the Croatian city of Dubrovnik has seen heavy rain not snow, with 95mm of rain in a thirty hour period. This same low brought gales to Termoli on the Italian Adriatic coast and light snowfall to the hill towns of Trevico and Campobasso.
Further east again, the severe cold continues over the higher parts of eastern Turkey as a result of an anticyclone situated over Iraq. At Kars, an overnight low of minus 28 Celsius was reported on Saturday morning, that’s 17 degrees below their average December minimum of minus 11 Celsius. No surprises then that their day time high struggled too, the thermometer stood at just minus 15 Celsius, some 13 degrees below the average maximum of minus 2 degrees.
With all this talk of snow, I’m sure you’re wondering about our chances of a white Christmas. Well it’s early days yet but it’s looking likely that we’ll have a mild start to the week before cold air floods across the UK overnight on Christmas Eve and into Christmas Day increasing the chance of snow for northern Britain, particularly across the hills!
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