Ireland has the lowest highest temperature and highest lowest temperature in Europe!!

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

Ireland has the lowest high temperature record in Europe, and the highest low temperature record in Europe. Really fascinating stuff. :cool:

With a small number of caveats, Ireland has literally the least extremes in weather in all of Europe. Meaning the best way to describe Irish weather is, 'fierce mild'.

The only country that has never had a temperature over Ireland's highest ever temperature record of 33.3 °C, is Iceland at 30.5 °C. Every other European country has recorded a higher temperature at some point in its history. And I personally would be happy to discount Iceland's record as it has a smaller population than Cork, so Iceland simply doesn't count as a real country.

The only country that has never recorded a higher lowest ever temperature in Europe are Portugal with −16.0 °C, whereas Ireland's record lowest ever temperature is −19.1 °C. Every other country in Europe has recorded a lower temperature than this at some point.
Malta too who's lowest ever temperature of 1.4 °C are ahead, but they don't count because they are closer to Africa than mainland Europe.

I'm sure anybody who reads this post will feel that I have really set the tone for a wonderful June Friday afternoon.

Wikipedia:List of weather records.

amcalester

Ireland has the lowest highest temperature and highest lowest temperature in Europe when you exclude the countries with lower highest temperatures and higher lowest temperatures.

Amazing OP, stay by the phone Met Eireann are going to call you soon.

Cervantes2

Grand stretch in the evening

elefant

So, what you're saying is Ireland doesn't actually hold the record for either of things in the thread title?

It seems that we do hold the longest standing official 'highest temperature' record in the world though. It has been 47,479 days since we beat our top temperature!

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

elefant wrote: »

It seems that we do hold the longest standing official 'highest temperature' record in the world though. It has been 47,479 days since we beat our top temperature!

This was a further point I wanted to raise but felt the op was getting long.

Should Ireland's record not count? We're basically relying on one guy for each record, with one piece of equipment and that's it. The possibility for it to be an error are fairly big, considering it was done over 130 years ago in very rural parts of Ireland. You would think modern recording techniques are better, more verifiable, accurate and done in a more robust way than back then (no offence to back then).

Should only really count records over the last 50 - 100 years imo.

seamus

You actually highlight something very specific about Ireland.

Our weather is insanely stable. Rarely very hot, rarely very cold. Even our hot and cold records are really pathetic.

Did you know that Ireland is more Northerly than the entire United States (excluding Alaska, the freak state)? And that 80% of the Canadian population lives South of Ireland?

And yet, here we are, never too hot and never too cold. This is down to the Gulf Stream - an enormous ocean current that carries "warm" water from Mexico, all the way across the Atlantic and up onto our western coasts. This in turn pushes a predominantly westerly wind in from the Atlantic, which results in high levels of moisture, and very even levels of heat. A bit like having air conditioning running all the time set to 19 degrees. You'll be a little warm on a hot day and a little cold on a cold day.

When we experience "extreme" weather like last week's heat or the snow in 2010, it's nearly always down to the wind changing direction from westerly to easterly - carrying more extreme temperatures from Africa, Mainland Europe or Northern Europe/Siberia.

This is where climate change is a big deal. If the nature of the Gulf Stream ever changes, we as a country are absolutely fncked. For example, if the stream was to stop or significantly slow, and/or our predominant wind direction became easterly, we would likely see hot, arid summers; hot and insanely dry (drought-level conditions). Winters would be a good deal more unpredictable, varying between hurricane-level storms and flooding and weeks or months of snow and negative double digit temperatures. I'm talking ice-skating on the Liffey temperatures. For months.

Likely we'd move from our traditional four seasons to something being closer to rainy seasons and dry seasons. Except you'd have rainy-hot, dry-hot, rainy-cold and dry-cold.

RobertKK

The nearly island.

jester77

You have to go back to 1887 for that highest temperature. Global warming must have been bad back then!

elefant

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo wrote: »

This was a further point I wanted to raise but felt the op was getting long.

Should Ireland's record not count? We're basically relying on one guy for each record, with one piece of equipment and that's it. The possibility for it to be an error are fairly big, considering it was done over 130 years ago in very rural parts of Ireland. You would think modern recording techniques are better, more verifiable, accurate and done in a more robust way than back then (no offence to back then).

Should only really count records over the last 50 - 100 years imo.

Good point. We also seem to have the longest standing 'coldest record'.
A couple of rogue meteorologists back in the 1880s in Sligo and Kilkenny.

topper75

I have puffed my chest out and have a smug expression on my face now.

What, with me being Irish and all.

The next Johnny Foreigner who asks me about this topic is going to get such an earful. Come on Johnny Foreigner - ask me about our temperatures versus your country. Ask me.

judeboy101

Typical Ireland, can't even be top or bottom of a feckin weather list

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo wrote: »

And I personally would be happy to discount Iceland's record as it has a smaller population than Cork, so Iceland simply doesn't count as a real country.

Yeah, the English gave Iceland similar credence at Euro 2016, we saw what happened there....

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater wrote: »

Yeah, the English gave Iceland similar credence at Euro 2016, we saw what happened there....

To be fair though, Cork would beat Iceland in football so it still all balances out. The England national team are simply terrible at football.

Mutant z

Non extreme either way just in between both, that seems about right.

Mr_Roger_Bongos

seamus wrote: »

This is where climate change is a big deal. If the nature of the Gulf Stream ever changes, we as a country are absolutely fncked.

Is there any country that wouldn't be fncked if the gulfstream changed?

This is a serious question, because i worry we could see it in our lifetime.

They talk about temperatures rising further from the Equator i.e. An extreme interpretation being that Sahara temperatures expand further north and south. So France would get Spain's climate and southern Spain/Italy would be closer to north africa.

When was it ever 33 degrees in Ireland? I definitely wasn't around for that.

Interesting fact though: Irish rainfall is the same all year round, we get no more rain in winter than we do in summer, on average. I think it was an RTE weatherman I heard saying that.

LadyMacBeth_

Nice temperate climate, I'm happy with that. Can't be dealing with extremes.

ToddyDoody

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo wrote: »

I personally would be happy to discount Iceland's record as it has a smaller population than Cork, so Iceland simply doesn't count as a real country.

I think you mean Munster.

Is it really that fascinating? It's just a statistic.

64 billion put into banks, now that's fascinating.

_Whimsical_

We are living the dream here for the most part as far as the climate goes. It really is just right, give or take a handful or several of grey summer days, but it definitely balances itself out when you work tornado, massive hurricane, blizzards, floods, forest fires started by heat etc into the equation.

silverharp

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

We are living the dream here for the most part as far as the climate goes. It really is just right, give or take a handful or several of grey summer days, but it definitely balances itself out when you work tornado, massive hurricane, blizzards, floods, forest fires started by heat etc into the equation.

I'd disagree, we are about 750KM-1000KM too far North. just south of Brittney might be getting close

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

ToddyDoody wrote: »

I think you mean Munster.

Is it really that fascinating? It's just a statistic.

64 billion put into banks, now that's fascinating.

Munster has 4 times more people than Iceland.

peasant

Ireland has an absolutely perfect climate...it's just the weather that's shyte

pajo1981

jester77 wrote: »

You have to go back to 1887 for that highest temperature. Global warming must have been bad back then!

Climate denier gob****e. Theres always one.

Xaracatz

topper75 wrote: »

I have puffed my chest out and have a smug expression on my face now.

What, with me being Irish and all.

The next Johnny Foreigner who asks me about this topic is going to get such an earful. Come on Johnny Foreigner - ask me about our temperatures versus your country. Ask me.

Yep. I pulled out that fact straight away with pride. It's been hitting the mid to late 30s daily here in Germanyland (was 28 degrees at 6.30am today) and everybody is jealous of our Irish weather for once.

diomed

peasant wrote: »

Ireland has an absolutely perfect climate...it's just the weather that's shyte

You're a farmer, admit it.

Caoimhgh1n

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo wrote: »

Ireland has the lowest high temperature record in Europe, and the highest low temperature record in Europe. Really fascinating stuff. :cool:

With a small number of caveats, Ireland has literally the least extremes in weather in all of Europe. Meaning the best way to describe Irish weather is, 'fierce mild'.

The only country that has never had a temperature over Ireland's highest ever temperature record of 33.3 °C, is Iceland at 30.5 °C. Every other European country has recorded a higher temperature at some point in its history. And I personally would be happy to discount Iceland's record as it has a smaller population than Cork, so Iceland simply doesn't count as a real country.

The only country that has never recorded a higher lowest ever temperature in Europe are Portugal with −16.0 °C, whereas Ireland's record lowest ever temperature is −19.1 °C. Every other country in Europe has recorded a lower temperature than this at some point.
Malta too who's lowest ever temperature of 1.4 °C are ahead, but they don't count because they are closer to Africa than mainland Europe.

I'm sure anybody who reads this post will feel that I have really set the tone for a wonderful June Friday afternoon.

Wikipedia:List of weather records.

Sorry OP, but you're wrong.

Ireland isn't a real country because it's population is smaller than New York.

Also, it is further west than mainland Europe.

IamAGobdaw

Punching above our weight!

indioblack

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater wrote: »

Yeah, the English gave Iceland similar credence at Euro 2016, we saw what happened there....

Did it rain?

Sam Kade

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

When was it ever 33 degrees in Ireland? I definitely wasn't around for that.

Interesting fact though: Irish rainfall is the same all year round, we get no more rain in winter than we do in summer, on average. I think it was an RTE weatherman I heard saying that.

It isn't rocket science to find out
http://www.kilkennyweather.com/index.php/1887-the-hottest-day