Satellite picture of Ireland caught on January 19, 2023, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Aqua satellite.
In ancient Greek and Roman times, the lavish emerald island of Ireland was called out for its long wintry seasons.
The term Hibernophile might conjure a picture of somebody who takes pleasure in settling in for a long winter season’s nap. In truth, Hibernophiles are fans of Hibernia, the classical Latin name for Ireland.
The name is stated to have actually stemmed from Greek descriptions of the land; the Alexandrian polymath Ptolemy called the island Iouernia in his cartographic book Geographia The Romans most likely detected the resemblance in between this Greek kind of the name and the Latin word hibernus, indicating wintry. (Think “hibernate” and “hibernacle.”) Hibernia might be analyzed as the “land of winter,” or with some poetic license, “the island of the eternal winter.”
Ireland’s Wintry Landscape
The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on < period class ="glossaryLink" aria-describedby ="tt" data-cmtooltip ="<div class=glossaryItemTitle>NASA</div><div class=glossaryItemBody>Established in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). It is responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. Its vision is "To discover and expand knowledge for the benefit of humanity." Its core values are "safety, integrity, teamwork, excellence, and inclusion." NASA conducts research, develops technology and launches missions to explore and study Earth, the solar system, and the universe beyond. It also works to advance the state of knowledge in a wide range of scientific fields, including Earth and space science, planetary science, astrophysics, and heliophysics, and it collaborates with private companies and international partners to achieve its goals.</div>" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex ="0" function ="link" > NASA‘sAqua satellite caught this hibernal image onJanuary 19,2023(**************************************************************************** )that day, clouds had actually mainly cleared after anArctic air mass brought hail, sleet, snow, and frost to the island.Snow holds on to locations of greater elevations.
(************************************************************************************************ )(********************************************************************************************* )snow falls most often inJanuary and February, according to theIrishMeteorologicalService, though flurries can fly fromNovember throughApril The finishings of white tend to be short lived, and lots of winter seasons pass without a significant snowstorm.However, more severe wintry weather condition does sometimes strike. For example, freezing Arctic air introduced an early winter season in2010 And in more far-off history, a big snowfall in the year 764 apparently stayed for 3 months.
On the entire, however, Ireland experiences a moderate environment thanks to the North Atlantic Drift Current which brings warm ocean waters to greater latitudes. The water around the island tends to be coldest in February and March, causing a sluggish warmup of air temperature levels in the spring– and possibly offering the impression that winter seasons will never ever end.
Renewable Energy Advances
While winter seasons might not constantly bring much snow, they do tend to be windy. In the lead-up to the winter season of 2023-2024, relentless winds provided a green energy success to the EmeraldIsle On December 6, 2023, Ireland reached an all-time high for wind power output on the nation’s grid: Wind satisfied over 70 percent of Ireland’s electrical energy needs for that day. Ireland ranks amongst the leading nations on the planet in regards to the percentage of wind power in its electrical energy generation mix. In 2022, wind represented one-third of its energy production.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, utilizing MODIS information from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview
