Palma.For the time being, there is little chance of a white Christmas in the Balearics unless there is a radical deterioration in the weather.
Yesterday, the Director of the Balearic Met. Office, Agusti Jansa confirmed that this month has been unusually wet but, at the same time, abnormally mild, for this time of year.
And it is the higher than usual temperatures which are keeping the snow away.
For example, at 8am yesterday morning, the temperature in Lluc was 12.6ºC, 15ºC in Palma, nearly 16ºC in Ciutadella, Minorca and nudging towards 17ºC in Pollensa.
On November 24 last year, temperatures had fallen to as low as zero in Majorca, Jansa pointed out and we saw the first flurries of snow towards the end of the month.
Average temperatures
Jansa said that average temperature has been at least 2ºC above normal this month and for that reason, we are not going to be seeing any snow for the time being.
He did, however, forecast some changes in temperature over the next few days but, in most cases, it is going to get even warmer during the day as we head into the weekend.
But, it will feel slightly colder over night.
For the moment, we see no indication of a cold front coming our way, Jansa underlined.
But, to date, 488 litres of rain per square metre have been recorded in Lluc this month when 368 is the norm.
In Sa Pobla, 180 litres of rain have fallen per square metre, well above the average of 126 and in Pollensa, 196 litres per square metre have been collected, again above the norm of 122.