SNOW, and its attendant inconveniences, were taken very seriously in bygone times. In early 1787, for example, the Dublin Chronicle reported that a gentleman passing through Marybone Lane was hit in the face with a large snowball, upon which he immediately pulled out a pistol, pursued the man responsible, and shot him dead. Deluded persons are, therefore, cautioned against such practices, as in similar circumstances they are liable, by Act of Parliament, to be shot without any prosecution or damage accruing to the person who should fire.
It is doubtful if this law has survived on our statute books into the present more enlightened era but the inconvenience caused by snow is just as real. Our last disruptive bout was experienced on the feast of the Epiphany, January 6th, in 1994. The snow came suddenly and unexpectedly to the eastern half of the country, and although it lasted only a short time, it was sufficient to bring Dublin's rush hour traffic to a stand-still.
Before that, the previous major snowfall was in 1987 - the Cork area being the worst affected. More usually however, as at present, snow approaches from the east, so eastern counties bear the brunt.
Widespread and prolonged snow occurred in the present century during the winters of 1909-10, 1916-17, 1932-33, 1946-47, 1962-63, 1978-79 and 1981-82 and caused considerable disruption to the domestic and commercial life of the country. To those old enough to have experienced it, the severe weather in the early months of 1947 has proved to be particularly memorable.
Substantial falls of snow, as in the case of widespread rain, are normally associated with depressions or with large slow moving shower clouds. Indeed, all that is required for rain to fall as snow is that the temperature be low enough - below about 3C. It sometimes happens, therefore, that precipitation falling as rain in the afternoon may turn to snow with the approach of dusk, when the temperature falls below the critical value.
Early evening snow like this often has a very nasty aftermath. As the shower cloud or the depression moves away from the locality, the skies begin to clear and the night temperature falls rapidly as the earth loses heat by radiation. If the ground temperature drops below zero, snow and slush solidify into a thick coating of treacherous ice, and walking and driving become very hazardous indeed as many reader will be well aware from personal experience.