Tristrame

News 24 have mentioned that.They're down playing the snow risk in it. Their words were rain but cold enough for a few flakes of snow mixed in. I'd translate that as snow in favoured spots inland but not widespread and on high ground eg chilterns. That ties in with the nae you posted which shows mostly rain.

It's a hunch.He could be wrong. Teits is making a brave attempt at a forecast based on long time model watching,longtime weather observing and some intuition. People at the met office probably have more experience but they do the exact same thing.

To the seasoned model reader-FI varies depending on how accurate the models have been and how many flip flops they have had in recent weeks etc.To me hard FI is always post 120hrs but if things are really uncertain then it's post 96hrs. Outside of that,it's a case of looking for trends and agreement. Another point to consider is that even avid model watchers and high post count users here can get caught out by believing a trend that makes it all the way from far FI into sub 120 only to be snatched away again by the models or more accurately by mother nature herself. The most potent example of this was in mid january 2007 when people here and else where were getting all excited about snowmageddon charts only for all models to flip flop inside a week and for it not to happen. So while looking at models and imagining what might happen is enjoyable-do bear in mind that they can flip flop and this has been all too common in recent months. You will also notice that peoples definitions of FI change as they get more confident but a flip flop is still always possible so it's safer to add caution to everything you say and then theres no major disappointment

Is that in wicklow town ? I presume/hope the roads are ok there? as I will be up there shortly.

light snow falling here 0.8c/-0.5c

The BBC one lunchtime forecast now wouldnt inspire confidence though.Some snow from that yes.Then dry. Not even a shower over NI. They had one shower into the East coast south of Dublin with a bit of white in it briefly and that was it... Just seen the BBC Wales forecast where they are expecting a lot of snow throughout wales from the weather system coming through there tonight. Theri precip maps showed rain over Eastern Ireland but not much activity-most of them causing ships to have umberella's really. Meanwhile ME expect thunder with the showers in the East tomorrow with sleet and snow. If it's anything like the thundersnow in Arklow on Monday where 3 inches came down in an hour,I'll take that! Someones wrong though.

Though ME use that ecm Eagle,they don't seem enthused... "bur scattered wintry showers of hail, sleet and snow also, especially in the north and east. Max. 1 to 5 Celsius." The "bur" is their own typo. I'm of the view that it has been so long since these conditions have prevailed in Ireland and the fact that they are so rare that there is no duty forecaster in ME who has enough experience to know what is possible here when it's marginal. Combine thta with the hassle they got from Donegal a few years ago when they forecasted snow and it didnt happen and Mr Eagletons snow forecast 3 years ago that was actually rain and there you have it. We'll do as good a job ourselves.

On croghan mountain west of me,theres at least 2 to 3 feet at the moment. Modestly high ground nearby circa 900feet have between a foot and 18 inches with big drifts. All rain here just 5 miles away from them by the coast.I know of several people completely snowed in up there now.It's simply incredible. The wicklow mountain rescue got stuck trying to reach 2 cars stuck on the sally gap and had to ski to where the cars were in 4 foot of snow.

Mostly rain below 1000ft. The 2 feet or so of snow 4 miles from here at 900 to 1200ft asl is getting nicely topped up I hear. Lashing rain here with almost all the lying snow gone at this stage. Air temp is 3.1c Dewpoint is 2c

Arklow got a lot of snow yesterday from about 330 untill 10 pm.About 3 inches in the town and 4 out by me. The town was chaotic by 5pm. I had to go into town in my jeep to collect my sister whose car got stuck at the railway station. Several cars were stuck on the navvy bridge. It took us an hour to get about a half mile up the wexford road out by mcdonalds with the queu of traffic and with cars spinning and crashing and skidding all over the place . There was a thunderstorm yes thundersnow at about 530pm in the middle of that with about 5 flashes and big loud cracks! Still snowing here as I type! Quite an eventfull 24hrs curtesy of irish sea lake effect snow and pure luck being in the line of fire of a train of showers followed by the more general spell. A mate of mine met the snow at Lil doyles yesterday where it became a winter wonderland. North of there towards Dublin yesterday evening there was no lying snow.

White out conditions here in Arklow. Snow flakes the size of small bungalows Really heavy stuff and thats coming down on the not so tardy amounts we already have

It's stopped snowing here in co wicklow now-roads are a nightmare. A good 4 inches fell yesterday and some more this morning. No camera but this is from about 10 miles away posted on boards.ie and pretty much describes the scene here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/attachment....mp;d=1233652632

Mostly snow flurries here on and off-though from 11am to about 1pm we got about 2 inches. Thats thawing bigtime at 2c

Light dusting left on the ground here after a few heavy showers between 5 and 7amShowers since like Matty have been going either to the south or the north of me. Currently 2.2c dewpoint -3.3c

I've seen snow accumilate in Dublin city centre several times in my lifetime-mostly in the 80's.I've seen the lake at UCD frozen and snowmen built on it-also in the 80's. I've also seen snow covering stephens green several times in the 80's so yes it can! I'd expect you to do quite well this week out in meath also.

Sunny and Feeling warm