Drought/Low Rainfall Watch - Summer 2018

Artane2002

Supercell wrote: »

7.4mm rain month to date here (including todays showers), ground is absolute dust below top 1cm or so. My veggies this year are a disaster as I havent been able to water. The few tomatoes there are on my spindly plants are ripening just fine and splitting...need to get a bigger rainwater tank.

I was in Dundrum earlier and the grass there was much yellower than up here in Artane. There was still a lot of green there but noticeable yellow.

Oops69

Artane2002 wrote: »

I was in Dundrum earlier and the grass there was much yellower than up here in Artane. There was still a lot of green there but noticeable yellow.

The grass is always greener on the NORTHside ...

Artane2002

Oops69 wrote: »

The grass is always greener on the NORTHside ...

The grass is 100% green here, only around 50% green where I was in Dundrum. I know it is usually greener here but it's still a bigger than usual difference...

MJohnston

Presumably there's a small rain shadow for a lot of south Dublin that's near the mountains?

JJayoo

From 3pm yesterday until now we have had 22mm of rain in south Sligo.

JJayoo

JJayoo wrote: »

From 3pm yesterday until now we have had 22mm of rain in south Sligo.

15 hours later and we are up to 45mm of rain

Mobhi1

JJayoo wrote: »

15 hours later and we are up to 45mm of rain

We have only had 15.7mm rain in the whole of August. 1.2mm since midnight.

JJayoo

Mobhi1 wrote: »

We have only had 15.7mm rain in the whole of August. 1.2mm since midnight.

Are you south or east?

Crazy how big the difference is.

Mobhi1

JJayoo wrote: »

Are you south or east?

Crazy how big the difference is.

Glasnevin, north Dublin.

mg1982

JJayoo wrote: »

15 hours later and we are up to 45mm of rain

Whats crazy is if you go on met eireanns site Markree castle got 2.9mm of rain yesterday. The highest for any weather station was finner at 9.8. Im in south sligo too and it feels like we got a lot more than any of those totals.

JJayoo

mg1982 wrote: »

Whats crazy is if you go on met eireanns site Markree castle got 2.9mm of rain yesterday. The highest for any weather station was finner at 9.8. Im in south sligo too and it feels like we got a lot more than any of those totals.

Ya I have a rain guage sitting in the lawn and it was a washout.

JJayoo

Horrible day, raining from about 3pm onwards.

17mm so far today.

Oneiric 3

Given that the rainfall totals have more or less returned to normal now - at least over the last 28 days which nationally, is just shy of 100% of normal (down mostly to a wetter west balanced out by a drier east), I think this thread should be put to death, or at least, confined to the archives of history!

As an aside, the front which is expected to move down over the country tonight and first thing tomorrow looks potentially quite sharp:




The models still not showing much rain from this for the still parched east of Ireland, but with so much moisture in the air, hopefully this front will trigger some spurts of heavier rain for these regions as it passes over.

giveitholly

Far from over in my area,grass has slowed down again and becoming burnt in patches,ground is like a rock and many small streams/water courses are still bone dry

Mobhi1

Rainfall totals are still way below normal in eastern, midland and southern areas and I'm not even sure if summer totals will be reached for other areas.

RobertKK

I'm at 10.2mm for the month of August, so it is way drier than normal here still in Kilkenny - north of Kilkenny city.
Kilkenny city is at 7.4mm of rain for the month.

Oneiric 3

Here's some rainfall data for the last 28 days as reported by Met Eireann, and calculated using the 'Ag reports'.

Reggie.

We are near the bottom of the league

Cantona's Collars

The total for Johnstown Castle seems unusually high. I think the total was skewed by one exceptionally heavy couple of hours of rain about 10 days ago down that way while the majority of the county had very little rain in comparison.

RobertKK

The end of July rain will be falling out of the 28 average soon and it will reflect the much bigger contrast that has happened over the country this month.

Oneiric 3

Cantona's Collars wrote: »

The total for Johnstown Castle seems unusually high. I think the total was skewed by one exceptionally heavy couple of hours of rain about 10 days ago down that way while the majority of the county had very little rain in comparison.

Daily totals at Johnstown Castle for the 28 day period referenced above (from Met Éireann)

MJohnston

Oneiric 3 wrote: »

Here's some rainfall data for the last 28 days as reported by Met Eireann, and calculated using the 'Ag reports'.

If Cork Airport doesn't record 30.3mm of rain in the next 9 days (including today), it will be the driest summer on record there.



Entirely possible that this could be true at lots of other stations too. sryanbruen - do you know the driest summer totals for each of the stations?

sryanbruen

MJohnston wrote: »

If Cork Airport doesn't record 30.3mm of rain in the next 9 days (including today), it will be the driest summer on record there.

Entirely possible that this could be true at lots of other stations too. sryanbruen - do you know the driest summer totals for each of the stations?

This is taking a lot longer than I expected so I thought I'd give what I've done so far.

Top 5 driest Summers (June-July-August) on record (with 2018 up to August 21st included) for the following 4 stations.

Dublin Airport (1942 to 2018)

1. 2018 - 63.6mm
2. 1975 - 78.6mm
3. 1995 - 89.0mm
4. 1959 - 100.0mm
5. 2006 - 102.3mm

Belmullet (1957 to 2018)

1. 1983 - 115.2mm
2. 1976 - 130.8mm
3. 2006 - 140.0mm
4. 1995 - 140.1mm
5. 1972 - 161.8mm

Valentia Observatory (1940 to 2018)

1. 1940 - 131.9mm
2. 1975 - 133.6mm
3. 1955 - 134.3mm
4. 2018 - 152.0mm
5. 1977 - 164.1mm

Shannon Airport (1946 to 2018)

1. 2006 - 89.3mm
2. 2018 - 98.0mm
3. 1983 - 106.3mm
4. 1976 - 107.4mm
5. 1981 - 122.8mm

Data comes from Met Éireann.

You can find the chart versions to these attached. I will do others also.

The past couple of weeks have been lovely here in KK, - lots of sunshine, a few showers, and not too hot. Farmers and gardens are still under severe pressure though. We've only scraped up to 11mm for the entire month of August, since this morning's showers.

JJayoo

15 mm from 11am till now (23.30) I'm south sligo.

Fcuk off rain

Another 4mm in Kilkenny this morning. My pot plants are ecstatic. We're up to 15mm now since beginning of August!

pauldry

Newport has gone past its Normal full monthly quota of rain for August. Most other stations in the West and North will too with rainfall on at least 90 per cent of the remaining days of August.

For South and East rainfall on less than 50 per cent of the days means below average August.

Victor Meldrew

Do we need average rainfall to have no soil moisture deficits and no water shortages or does "average" provide a lot of surplus ?

Or, if rainfall remains below average is it still possible to replenish reserves?

appledrop

16mm in Dublin since midnight so I think we are ok now in East! No more rain please!

Victor Meldrew

appledrop wrote: »

16mm in Dublin since midnight so I think we are ok now in East! No more rain please!

Well, if it could confine itself to midnight to 6.30, that would be great.