Will it be a white christmas

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Are you Dreaming of a White Christmas? By Margaret Franklin

While the notion of ‘ A White Christmas’ or ‘Walking in a Winter Wonderland’ may sound romantic, for most of us in Ireland, snow is rather an inconvenience, if not a downright hazard. This is of course, because we are unaccustomed to snow. An ocean current from the Gulf of Mexico keeps our little island relatively warm, making snow in December something of a rarity. A few years ago, we didn’t get snow until January and then it was more prolonged than we had been used to in recent years. More recently, we got our first snowfalls before the end of November, which is most unusual and unexpected, so the country practically ground to a halt for two weeks. This was due to a pincer movement of icy Arctic air coming directly from the north, while at the same time, the country was blasted by cold winds from Siberia to the east. There were worries that supplies of salt to treat the roads were running low, so that local authorities had to mix in sand to stretch it out. But then, the wind direction changed and the snow suddenly melted away. Things got back to normal. Then, just when we thought it was all over, the snow returned. To add to our problems, the ships bringing fresh supplies of salt from Egypt and Turkey were delayed by storms in the Mediterranian Sea and there were worries that they would not reach us before the supplies ran out.


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