Weather and Climate Records

Ostrom

Can anyone tell me how far back, or to what extent local recordings exist for Ireland. I'm interested in temperature, rainfall and sunshine hours, monthly means per province would be fine, but anything more localised even better.

I'm looking for 1820-1910

Thanks!


(Sorry, was browsing Weather pics and entered the post here, apologies! - can this be moved back to the main forum?)

Danno

That data would be held by the British Met Office as the few Irish Stations: Valentia, Blacksod, Armagh, Kilkenny Castle, Birr Castle and Phoenix Park were set up by the British. Funnily enough, The Irish Met did not get set up and take these stations over until the mid 1930s AFAIK!

StratoQ

Here is a link for data for Armagh (within that time frame).

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/stationdata/armaghdata.txt

Deep Easterly

Temperature data for the period you are looking for Elfa is notably sketchy but available from met eireann. Give them a shout, you'll find them very helpful!

Off the top of my head, I can tell you that the first 30 years of the 19th century were cooler and wetter in general than the present, whilst there was a gradual warm up for the remainder, peaking during the mid century.

The late 30's and 40's was an extremely zonal period over Ireland, with the Azores high placed a little more north than average, bringing very mild and very moist air in such a long period of westerlies that have yet to be equalled since.

The latter part of the century saw more fluctuation with patterns, with warmer, drier summers, and colder winters.

I blame global warming meself.

Ostrom

Thanks for that! (I blame potato farming)

I'll give them a shout and hopefully...! Have you ever heard of any early hobbyist climtologists keeping records? I have come across a few in relation to other things such as agricultural statistics (estate records and the like) but I'm new to weather records