Irish Weather Statistics

echat

Huge work Syran, thanks. You went from 116 heatwaves yesterday to 334 which really shows that Ireland can be warm. Surprisingly this century does not dominate - August and July 1976 do. A good August 2018 is needed!

The highest mean maximum is 29.9 (Enniscorthy in 1983 with the maximum there at 31.2 which is very close to the mean) so that 30 is a barrier still standing for the mean maximum in a heatwave.

sryanbruen

This is every ice day that Cavan (Loretto College) recorded. An ice day is a day where the maximum temperature does not get above 0c all day. This station of course holds Ireland's all-time low maximum on record for any month of -9.8c on 21st December 2010.

Day|Maximum temperature|Minimum temperature
27 Dec 1995|-4.0|-12.0
28 Dec 1995|-1.0|-10.5
28 Dec 2000|-2.0|-7.5
29 Dec 2000|-1.5|-11.1
24 Dec 2009|-1.1|-6.7
8 Jan 2010|-1.0|-10.8
28 Nov 2010|-0.4|-5.7
2 Dec 2010|-0.5|-6.1
3 Dec 2010|-0.3|-7.8
6 Dec 2010|-0.2|-7.4
7 Dec 2010|-1.1|-11.4
8 Dec 2010|-0.5|-12.1
18 Dec 2010|-3.0|-9.9
19 Dec 2010|-1.5|-11.1
20 Dec 2010|-6.3|-13.9
21 Dec 2010|-9.8|-12.8
22 Dec 2010|-4.9|-14.4
23 Dec 2010|-2.1|-14.2
24 Dec 2010|-2.3|-14.2


Data comes from Met Éireann.

Mobhi1

December 2010 was cold.

sryanbruen

Mobhi1 wrote: »

December 2010 was cold.

Jpmarn

Which is more common in Ireland, Very hot days of temperature maxing out at 30c or over or Ice days when temperatures only max out at 0c or below? Take your time to answer this question. At least we’ve seen both these days this year but I think the very hot days leading. December 2010 brought a good deal of ice days. It's not every year that you get very hot days nor ice days. Yet you seldom come across such days in the one year such as 2018.

Artane2002

Jpmarn wrote: »

Which is more common in Ireland, Very hot days of temperature maxing out at 30c or over or Ice days when temperatures only max out at 0c or below? Take your time to answer this question. At least we’ve seen both these days this year but I think the very hot days leading. December 2010 brought a good deal of ice days. It's not every year that you get very hot days nor ice days. Yet you seldom come across such days in the one year such as 2018.

I have no evidence to back this up but I'd say ice days used to be more common than 30c+ days but recently I'd say 30c+ has become more common than ice days. I'm sure someone will have a better answer.

sryanbruen

Jpmarn wrote: »

Which is more common in Ireland, Very hot days of temperature maxing out at 30c or over or Ice days when temperatures only max out at 0c or below? Take your time to answer this question. At least we’ve seen both these days this year but I think the very hot days leading. December 2010 brought a good deal of ice days. It's not every year that you get very hot days nor ice days. Yet you seldom come across such days in the one year such as 2018.

That's a very good question and will require a lot of compiling lists. I will be looking for any day that failed to reach above 0c or reached/exceeded 30c at any station i.e. so like if only one station fits the criteria, that day will be considered in answering your question. I do this because of regional variation.

Meanwhile, I've been up to making a weather record table for Dublin Airport - will do more if people love them.

I have attached the Word document containing the table if the table image here is too small (for some reason, not all of the table is showing up when I copy and paste it into Paint) or you want to make use of the data for yourself.



Data comes from Met Éireann.

mickmackey1

I would guess that 1947 produced ice and tar-melt days

Danno

IIRC, we've had 4 ice days and three over 30s days in 2018. Will check the records soon and confirm.

Donegal Storm

sryanbruen wrote: »

That's a very good question and will require a lot of compiling lists. I will be looking for any day that failed to reach above 0c or reached/exceeded 30c at any station i.e. so like if only one station fits the criteria, that day will be considered in answering your question. I do this because of regional variation.

I should be able to put together an SQL query that lists every ice day and 30C+ day. I'll have a look this evening when I'm home

sryanbruen

10 years ago today (9th August 2008), a cold front which pushed eastwards over the country gave away to heavy thunderstorms and intense rainfall for parts of Ireland. Unstable air behind the cold front helped to develop these thunderstorms following the passage of the front. The front brought outbreaks of light to moderate rain early in the day with totals reaching between 6-8mm and during the early afternoon, a cell developed over west Offaly. This spread to other parts of the east such as Kildare, Dublin and Meath during the afternoon and evening. At 16:00, Dublin Airport and Casement Aerodrome reported thunderstorms with very heavy rainfall. This rain kept going and going until just after nightfall. Dublin Airport had a daily rainfall of 76.2mm on the 9th August 2008 which at the time was the station's second highest daily fall on record only beaten by 11th June 1993 which recorded 92.6mm; it is now the second highest on record as 2nd August 2014 recorded 84.0mm at the station. Other heavy rainfalls included:

Station|Rainfall total (mm)
Celbridge (Ardglass)|81.6
Botanic Gardens|57.4
Casement Aerodrome|40.9
Leixlip (Water Works)|85.8
Glenasmole|48.6
Straffan (Turnings)|53.3
Phoenix Park|58.8


*Leixlip (Water Works) recorded 77.8mm, Dublin Airport recorded 67.6mm and Celbridge (Ardglass) recorded 73.6mm in 5 hours. This Dublin Airport 5-hour rainfall total has a return period of 237 years. This meant rainfall rates per hour succeeded more than 100mm and would easily cause flash to severe flooding.

Here's three Dublin stations' rainfall totals for selected durations on 9th August 2008.



Here's an RTÉ Archives video on the event: https://www.rte.ie/archives/2018/0725/980945-flash-floods-chaos/

Pictures of the flooding:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Irish_flash_floods
https://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0810/106807-floods/
https://cli.fusio.net/cli/bulletin/monsums/clim-2008-Aug.pdf
https://www.met.ie/cms/assets/uploads/2017/08/Summer2008rainfall.pdf

Data comes from Met Éireann.

sryanbruen

On this day 15 years ago (10th August 2003), the UK maximum temperature record of 37.1c at Cheltenham which was set on 3rd August 1990 was beaten with a new record of 38.5c at Faversham, Kent (+1.4c above the previous record). If this temperature is not accepted then Kew Gardens (also Gravesend) in Kent also recorded a maximum temperature of 38.1c on the same day which bet the previous record as well. These are possibly the highest temperatures in the UK since July 1808 when 40c was reported in the UK but this is not official.

Other days preceding the big day (10th August 2003) also had very high maximum and minimum temperatures. Examples include 34.8c at Jersey Airport on the 5th August and a night time minimum of 23.7c at Guernsey Airport on the 4/5 August 2003 which was the highest on record beating 22.9c on 2/3 August 1990. St. Mawgan in Cornwall had a nightime minimum of 23.1c on the same night smashing its previous record of 20.4c on 28/29 July 1976. Gravesend, Kent recorded 36.4c on 6th August 2003 whilst Wisley, Surrey had 36.1c. Enfield (London) recorded 36.4c on the 9th. Greycrook in Scotland recorded a maximum of 32.9c on the 9th which was an all-time high temperature for Scotland for any month beating the previous record of 32.8c at Dumfries on 2 July 1908. 33.1c at Motherwell on 28 June 2018 was provisionally the new Scottish record beating this high of August 2003 but due to an ice cream van that came nearby the station, it was disregarded.

This all ended with a bang as Carlton-in-Cleveland recorded 30mm in the space of 5 minutes under a violent thunderstorm. It's funny to think that on the exact same day 110 years before (10th August 1893), 32mm fell at Preston in 5 minutes under a violent thunderstorm also.

The UK Met Office article here has more station records that were beaten during this August 2003 hot spell: https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/interesting/aug03maxtemps.html
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1256/wea.10.04A
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/3138865.stm

Data comes from the UK Met Office.

Oneiric 3

sryanbruen wrote: »

10 years ago today (9th August 2008), a cold front which pushed eastwards over the country gave away to heavy thunderstorms and intense rainfall for parts of Ireland.

Data comes from Met Éireann.

I vaguely remember this. Wasn't there some big GAA match in Dublin that day? Could be mistaking this for another event around this time though.

sryanbruen

Oneiric 3 wrote: »

I vaguely remember this. Wasn't there some big GAA match in Dublin that day? Could be mistaking this for another event around this time though.

The RTÉ Archive report of the day says:

The crowd at Croke Park were also affected by the downpours with match goers warned that outside the stadium, Jones’s Road had flooded. The soccer match between Shamrock Rovers and Sunderland scheduled to take place at Tolka Park was cancelled.

sryanbruen

I found a pic of Ireland from December 1981, this was taken on a flight from Cork to Manchester over Co. Tipperary on the 12th December 1981. Credit: John McLinden.



Why is it so hard to find a picture from December 1981!?

Also, I have completed the third entry of my project (monthly weather summaries on months Met Éireann did not have bulletins for)..... December 1981. You can find the summary attached.

sryanbruen

Dublin Airport daily rainfall totals for 1 January to 31 August 1968 along with a 10 day running average. I made this graph because RTÉ Archives released a very small video of it raining on 12 August 1968 yesterday ending the dry spell from July into mid-August which was the longest dry spell since 1955 at the time. Here's the link to the video: https://www.rte.ie/archives/2018/0716/979007-rain-downpour-in-dubin/



Data comes from Met Éireann.

Oneiric 3

sryanbruen wrote: »

I found a pic of Ireland from December 1981, this was taken on a flight from Cork to Manchester over Co. Tipperary on the 12th December 1981. Credit: John McLinden.



Why is it so hard to find a picture from December 1981!?

Also, I have completed the third entry of my project (monthly weather summaries on months Met Éireann did not have bulletins for)..... December 1981. You can find the summary attached.

sryanbruen

Oneiric 3 wrote: »

I've seen you mention December 1981 not documented much (unlike January 1982) by people and the media. I'd agree with you 100%. What would be the reasons for this though? December 1981 seems just as amazing as January 1982. Would it be like a Summer 1975/Summer 1976 scenario?

Jpmarn

While I definitely remember the snow event in January 1982 I don’t remember snow the previous month December 1981. Neither my home in Limerick or school in Dublin which I spent a lot of time in these years.

Oneiric 3

sryanbruen wrote: »

I've seen you mention December 1981 not documented much (unlike January 1982) by people and the media. I'd agree with you 100%. What would be the reasons for this though? December 1981 seems just as amazing as January 1982. Would it be like a Summer 1975/Summer 1976 scenario?

It is curious. Even on the 'Agro' bulletin, there is no mention of snow until the 13th when blizzard conditions would have been experienced in some areas. That pic and the above satellite shows that snow was well established before then.

Mobhi1

Oneiric 3 wrote: »

It is curious. Even on the 'Agro' bulletin, there is no mention of snow until the 13th when blizzard conditions would have been experienced in some areas. That pic and the above satellite shows that snow was well established before then.

I don't think the December snow lasted into January. I think the January snow was a fresh fall.

sryanbruen

As I was given a couple of thanks on Dublin Airport's weather records table post, I assumed that you wanted to see other stations so I went and done another one. This is Cork Airport's weather records with records going back to 1962. You can find the Word file attached if you'd like the table for your own research or archive.



Data comes from Met Éireann.

SleetAndSnow

brilliant sryan!

sryanbruen

Summer 2018: A possible record-breaker?

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/2018/a-record-breaking-summer

echat

Interesting article in the Irish Times yesterday about a Met Eireann / CSO data rescue project https://www.cso.ie/en/methods/climate/csoclimatedatarescue/

Will daily data make a big difference?

sryanbruen

echat wrote: »

Interesting article in the Irish Times yesterday about a Met Eireann / CSO data rescue project https://www.cso.ie/en/methods/climate/csoclimatedatarescue/

Will daily data make a big difference?

Most certainly, daily data is very important especially to statisticians like myself. Cannot wait to look at the old data of stations like Markree Castle.

sryanbruen

Maximum CET for Summer 2018 currently stands at 23.1c up to August 17th.

This is the second highest CET maximum for Summer on record so far:

1. 1976 - 23.47
2. 2018 - 23.10
3. 1995 - 22.50
4. 2003 - 22.27
5. 2006 / 1899 - 22.17

---

July 2018 did not stand out in terms of daily CETs against the other 19.0c+ CET months back to 1659.

---

The Central England Temperature for May to July 2018 was the warmest on record for May to July with a CET of 16.1c beating the previous record of 16.0c in 2006.

Top 5 warmest May to Julys on record

1. 2018 - 16.1
2. 2006 - 16.0
3. 1762/1976 - 15.9
4. 1868 - 15.8
5. 1846 - 15.7



All data comes from the UK Met Office.

Oneiric 3

sryanbruen wrote: »

Most certainly, daily data is very important especially to statisticians like myself. Cannot wait to look at the old data of stations like Markree Castle.

Some old thunder data from Markee Castle and Valentia which was then oversaw by the British Met Office:



23 recorded thunder days in 1912! This would be unheard of today, but isn't it interesting that with all our advance technology etc today, that precious first hand observations such as this are now being done away on a grand scale. And I don't buy the lack of 'resource' arguments either, as I would be pretty sure that resources were far more scant back then than they are now.

echat

Is slide 15 in the CSO / Met Eireann progress update due to the land slowly warming through Spring into Summer? It shows how the difference between the maximum and minimum daily temperature varies by month.

sryanbruen

To answer the question on if the 30c days or ice days are more common in Ireland, I have delved through the archives and try to find every possible such day with the records I have in hand (including Phoenix Park from ECA&D back to 1881) so this is an incomplete list but it's very clear and safe to say that ice days are far more common in Ireland than 30c days. You will find every single date below I have found to be such days. As a reminder, for answering this question, at least one Irish station has to record at least a full 24-hour period below freezing and or 30c. I have also attached my excel file containing this table and the excel file containing ice days and 30c days for Ireland given by Donegal Storm, since 1961.

With data rescue and other projects, hopefully this list will be completed in future with more dates added 'cause for sure there were more than this.

Ice days|30.0c days
9 January 1881|26 June 1887
10 January 1881|12 July 1921
13 January 1881|9 July 1934
15 January 1881|10 July 1934
16 January 1881|29 July 1948
20 January 1881|3 August 1975
22 January 1881|29 June 1976
11 December 1881|30 June 1976
9 December 1882|1 July 1976
10 December 1882|2 July 1976
13 December 1882|3 July 1976
14 December 1882|12 July 1983
30 December 1888|13 July 1983
20 December 1890|14 July 1983
3 January 1893|15 July 1983
5 January 1894|17 July 1989
6 January 1894|19 July 1989
9 January 1895|24 July 1989
8 February 1895|2 August 1990
11 February 1900|28 June 1995
11 February 1902|29 June 1995
27 December 1906|30 June 1995
29 December 1906|1 August 1995
20 December 1909|2 August 1995
4 February 1912|3 August 1995
21 December 1914|10 August 1995
24 January 1915|17 August 1995
17 December 1916|19 August 1995
8 January 1918|20 August 1995
14 January 1940|8 August 2003
17 January 1940|11 July 2005
20 January 1940|12 July 2005
5 January 1941|18 July 2006
6 January 1941|19 July 2006
24 January 1945|8 July 2013
30 January 1947|9 July 2013
27 January 1952|10 July 2013
1 February 1956|11 July 2013
2 February 1956|12 July 2013
23 January 1958|19 July 2013
13 January 1959|20 July 2013
14 January 1961|19 July 2016
19 December 1961|27 June 2018
27 December 1961|28 June 2018
28 December 1961|29 June 2018
29 December 1961
30 December 1961
31 December 1961
1 January 1962
2 January 1962
27 December 1962
12 January 1963
13 January 1963
17 January 1963
19 January 1963
22 January 1963
24 January 1963
2 February 1963
3 February 1963
18 December 1963
20 December 1963
4 February 1965
19 January 1966
3 January 1967
9 December 1967
7 February 1969
8 February 1969
15 February 1969
4 January 1970
9 December 1970
3 January 1971
30 January 1972
17 January 1973
4 December 1976
11 January 1977
12 January 1977
11 February 1978
12 February 1978
31 December 1978
1 January 1979
12 January 1979
15 February 1979
31 December 1979
8 December 1981
9 December 1981
10 December 1981
11 December 1981
17 December 1981
24 December 1981
8 January 1982
9 January 1982
10 January 1982
11 January 1982
12 January 1982
19 January 1984
1 January 1985
2 January 1985
3 January 1985
9 January 1985
11 January 1985
16 January 1985
17 January 1985
10 February 1985
11 February 1985
12 February 1985
13 February 1985
27 December 1985
28 December 1985
26 February 1986
11 January 1987
12 January 1987
13 January 1987
14 January 1987
1 December 1987
15 January 1988
16 January 1988
31 January 1988
27 December 1990
7 February 1991
9 February 1991
10 February 1991
20 November 1991
12 November 1992
13 November 1992
28 December 1992
24 October 1993
14 February 1994
25 December 1995
26 December 1995
27 December 1995
28 December 1995
2 January 1997
3 January 1997
4 January 1997
10 January 1999
27 December 2000
28 December 2000
29 December 2000
31 December 2001
29 November 2008
6 January 2009
7 January 2009
21 December 2009
22 December 2009
23 December 2009
24 December 2009
1 January 2010
6 January 2010
7 January 2010
8 January 2010
9 January 2010
23 January 2010
24 January 2010
21 February 2010
22 February 2010
28 November 2010
29 November 2010
1 December 2010
2 December 2010
3 December 2010
5 December 2010
6 December 2010
7 December 2010
8 December 2010
18 December 2010
19 December 2010
20 December 2010
21 December 2010
22 December 2010
23 December 2010
24 December 2010
25 December 2010
19 January 2011
20 January 2011
21 January 2011
28 February 2018
1 March 2018
2 March 2018
18 March 2018


Data comes from Met Éireann.