The rain may have eased off for now but you might want to keep your boots and your brollies close to hand ladies. Why? Well, we could be in for a tough, tough winter (collective groan).
Yes, according to reports today a hellish winter could be on its way due to a major shift in this thing called the ‘jet stream’ which is in our atmosphere.
The jet stream, a fast-flowing river of air located ten miles up in the earth’s atmosphere, has gotten moved out of its usual position. In fact, weather experts are blaming this as being the cause of our wet summers and our recent cold winters.
“It’s been happening more often in the past number of years around the northern hemisphere and has given rise to all sorts of anomalies, like our very cold winters a number of years ago, our very wet summer this year,” said Professor John Sweeney, a climatologist from NUI Maynooth, speaking to Colm Hayes on 2FM yesterday.
“It acts as a curtain rail for our storms and our depressions and anticyclones and from time to time it gets locked in the wrong position,” he added.
According to Professor Sweeney, our mild winter last year was down to the fact that the jet stream had “slipped back to a very normal position” but now it has a tendency to stray from its usual route, which is bad news for us as this results in snow storms, ice, frost and sub-zero temperatures.
According to weather experts, we could be set for another hard winter.
So if the jet stream doesn’t get its act together between now and November, Ireland could be set for a winter that is pretty similar to the “big freeze” of 2010. Shudder. We’re getting cold just thinking about it.
The good news is that there’s still a bit of hope that our winter won’t be too bad (fingers crossed!). Professor Sweeney said that as it stands “the jury really is out” on whether the jet stream will change positions again between now and the winter months.
“No-one can look that far ahead because of the complexity and the chaotic nature of the atmosphere. We can’t look more than five days ahead,” said Professor Sweeney.
Here at Her.ie we’re firm believers that it’s better to be prepared, so ladies stock up on chunky cardigans, snug boots and a heavy winter coat while you can – you might need them over the next few months!
We really hope that the winter isn’t too bad, solely so this poor guy doesn’t have to go through THIS again:
