Decision made to never again pine for that White Christmas

Country Living with Francis Farragher

THERE are times when you nearly have to pinch yourself when it comes to the passing of time. Last week, someone remarked to me that it was 10 years since our big freeze-up, and sure enough it was, through late November and almost all of December in what was a horrible end to 2010.

This wasn’t our normal mid-winter cold snap, but a prolonged period of weather where our temperatures at times were below those being experienced in the Lapland area of northern Finland.

In the Connacht Tribune weather forecast leading up to December 25, the first line read: “We’re dreaming of anything but a White Christmas,” as houses and sheds across the country had their water pipes frozen solid with no flushing toilets and not even a drip of water from the taps. Heating systems then packed up with no water, leaving unprecedented demand for electricity.

So, how bad really was it back in that December of 2010? Well, memory didn’t play tricks with me as a glance back at the files from that month tell their own, very cold story.

The Connacht Tribune edition of December, 24, 2010, reported in the Connemara notes that Dr. Michael Casey from Carna had made an appeal to Galway Co. Council for emergency action to try and get roads cleared in West Connemara.

On the Monday morning of December 20, it had taken Dr Casey ‘the best part of an hour’ to travel from Carna to the Health Centre in Cill Chiaráin, after a particularly heavy snowfall on the previous Saturday evening.

All across the country the arctic conditions were being replicated as recorded in Met Éireann’s log of exceptional weather events in Ireland. The lowest ever December air temperature was recorded in Straide, Co. Mayo, on Christmas Day, 2010, when the mercury dipped to –17.5° Celsius; while in Ballyhaise, Co Cavan, on December 21, the lowest ever ‘maximum’ daily temperature of –9.4°C was recorded.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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