Dreaming of a white Christmas? Well dream on!

THE chances of Ireland waking up to a white Christmas are receding every year, according to a leading climatologist.

Professor John Sweeney has said Ireland can expect warmer winters due to global warming, resulting in less snowfall during December.

And even though some forecasters have already predicted a bitterly cold winter for Ireland from next month, the NUI Maynooth academic said that the days when the country are covered in snow on December 25 are numbered.

Professor Sweeney said: ‘The projections are for Ireland to grow warmer by 1C from the mid-century on, and we’re looking at both warmer summers and winters.

‘We’ll always get snow in the uplands and mountains, but we’ll start to see less snow in the lowland areas in the coming years and that means we’ll get fewer and fewer white Christmases. ‘If I were a betting man, I wouldn’t be putting any money on there being snowfall on Christmas Day. It’s getting less likely each year.’

Professor Sweeney also warned that extreme weather events, such as the devastating Hurricane Ophelia, which wreaked severe damage across the country, are likely to become more frequent.

He explained: ‘In 2017, we have seen the continued trend towards more climate extremes.

‘And before that, we had other indications, like the wettest winter on record two years ago and the stormiest winter three years ago.

‘These more extreme rainfall and flooding events are happening because the amount of energy in the atmosphere is increasing due to the transmission of heat from the warmer land and the ocean below.’

Professor Sweeney also predicted that winters in the west of Ireland would be wetter in future, while those in the east would become drier.

He added that in a matter of just a few years incidences of frost in coastal areas of Ireland could disappear altogether.

Last week, the World Meteorological Organisation said that it expected this year to turn out to be one of the hottest years on record.