Summer 2021 General Discussion

Gonzo

more heavy rain here at Dunshaughlin, a dirty evening after a very wet day. My father has switched on his heating for the evening.

Danno

Have to agree with RobertKK's analysis of the rainfall situation in these parts, this week's rainfall has delivered very little to rectify the drought conditions across the southern Laois and northern Kilkenny areas. Coupled with very sandy soils here, crops are really struggling. Half an inch of rain over the guts of a week when the soils are crying out for 4 to 6 times that much isn't simply enough. It's a crucial part of the summer season now for getting moisture into the soil.

OldRio

Up here in Leitrim the weather was brilliant for fodder. We made plenty of Hay and haylage ourselves. Very good quality. The barn is full.

JCX BXC

The radar this morning does not accurately describe the intensity of the showers whatsoever. About half an hour ago it was utterly lashing and nothing more than a blue spec even on the netweather radar.

highdef

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117685946#Comment_117685946

Netweather radar is where it all went wrong!!! It's not great at all, especially when it comes to less heavy rainfall. Met Eireanns own radar is the best by far, both in terms of accuracy and resolution. If using the Met Eireann app, you can zoom in a lot. The main thing with the Met Eireann app versus Netweather is that Met Eireanns radar is usually about 10 minutes behind Net Weathers so if you look at the latest image, Met Eireann's is usually close to 15 minutes behind whilst Net Weather's can be as little as about 7 minutes.

JCX BXC

Cannot agree whatsoever, the colouring used by Met Eireann makes it very difficult to distinguish between heavier and lighter rainfall. Much prefer Netweather.

giveitholly

Turned out a lovely evening after a misty start to the day,pleasantly mild when the sun comes out

Gaoth Laidir

Just put together a chart showing the relationship between 850-hPa temperatures (T850) and maximum surface (1.5-metre) air temperatures (Tmax) before, during and after the recent heatwave. The T850 figures are from the 11Z Valentia soundings and I chose Gurteen as suitable station as it's not a million miles from Kerry but more importantly it's well away from the influence of sea breezes. It's also in a natural setting, away from any possible artificial influences.

Also shown are the daily sunshine hours for Gurteen. Obviously, the longer the sunshine the higher the temperature, and this also influences the relationship between T850 and Tmax.

The general rule of thumb is to add 15 degrees to T850 to get Tmax, but there are tonnes of caveats to that, namely the time of year (sun angle and duration), cloudiness, soil moisture, altitude of the station, lapse rate below, surface pressure, etc. However, it's clear that once the warm airmass and cloudless days were in place (from July 16th), Tmax went from 11.4 degrees above T850 on that first sunny day (>10 hours of sunshine) and rose to 13.8, 14.0, 15.8, 14.2, 15.6, 15.7 degrees above on the next six days.

Obviously this is just Gurteen and stations further west and northwest squeezed the extra couple of degrees out of it, being even more removed from the easterly sea breeze.

Castor Bay were only launching balloons at 23Z. All of its T850s were a degree or so lower than those of Valentia but those extra degrees were also squeezed out there too. That's the cumulative effect of multiple days' heat and also maybe less of a sea breeze influence from the short sea track from northern England.

Oneiric 3

We've had nothing but scant, insignificant rainfalls here in NE Galway since the middle of the month. Very dry and grass beginning to get that burnt dark bluish look. And very little rain to be had for this part of the country in the forecast as far as I can tell anyway.

Gonzo

A very different story here in Meath, it's been very wet since Tuesday morning although today is a bit dryer but still showers around. Dunsany is now sitting at 96mm of rain for the month, half of that fell in the first week of July and the second half of it over the past 4 days.

appledrop

We are the same Gonzo at Dublin airport. At 72mm and most of that fell this week in big downpours. We will end up with high enough rainfall considering we had a 10 day heatwave.

scouserstation

Looks like it's going to be an unsettled start to August but we can't complain too much over in Dublin it's been a fairly dry decent summer, lots of fine warm weather most of the time, wouldn't be the end of the world if we get a bit of rain for a few days, it will keep the farmers happy

Mimon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117688611#Comment_117688611

Yep, will take this for a week or two but would be nice to get last two weeks of August some High pressure building and up to mid 20s. A sunny august is well overdue so it owes us those two weeks minimum 😎

sryanbruen

Besides the persistence and high temperatures during the heatwave obviously, what I find quite impressive about July 2021 was how the sunshine total dramatically rose because of that very sunny period.

For the first 13 days, Dublin Airport had only 35 hrs of sun which was on par with July 2020 and was exceptionally dull. However, despite this, the monthly total in the end managed to reach 190 hrs which is Dublin's sunniest July since 2013. Still below April and May of this year but I was impressed just how much it had risen because of one (remarkable) sunny period.

Jpmarn

Looked at The monthly Data for Shannon Airport and the mean temperature for July 2021 is 17.8°C. That makes warmer than July 2018 at 17.2°c.

Oneiric 3

In terms of the national mean, July 2021 was the warmest since 2013 at 16.8c (2013 = 17.0c) and was on par with that of July 2006, but just ever so slightly cooler (by 0.15c) than that of July 1983. July 1995's monthly mean of 17.1c remains the one to beat.

Data from Met Eireann.

sryanbruen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117692415#Comment_117692415

Surprised July 1995 was the warmest for national mean. I would have guessed July 2013 or July 1983. Met É's anomalies give July 2013 as the warmest July but guess these are the deviations you can get by using different stations for a dataset.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117692480#Comment_117692480

It was a pretty warm Summer

It reminded me of Turkey at the time

Oneiric 3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117692480#Comment_117692480

True, but in fairness, there is very little difference (0.1c!) between the national averages the July's of 1995, 2013 or 1983.

Anecdotally, I'll still remember July 2021 more for its cloud than sunshine. It started and remained dull up to the middle of the month, and finished on a very dull note also. I think my mind has shut off that 10 day sunny spell that occurred between these two points because it was so unenjoyably hot to be out in. I don't think I have ever seen so few people out in (supposedly) fine weather in high summer as I did during that spell.

fryup

the coming week is going to be sh1t 😕

looks like the 9 day scorchio was our summer

External Association

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117693354#Comment_117693354

Ah no. Still 3 more weeks. Can get a lovely spell yet.

Luke-m

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117693354#Comment_117693354

Keep the faith. I think the second half of August is looking much better for settled weather.

Gonzo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117693354#Comment_117693354

Plenty of signals for things to warm up considerably into the second half of August. Up until this week it's been mostly dry and relatively warm since the end of May. The past week is by far the coolest and wettest week of the summer and this week will be more of the same but hopefully after next week things should improve somewhat.

Oscar Bravo

From Met Eireann "On this day 2nd of August 1995, Oak park recorded the highest temperature for the month of August of 31.5°C"

OldRio

Cool dark and wet morning in Leitrim. Not good at all.

Oneiric 3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117694271#Comment_117694271

Same in Galway, but I am enjoying watching the (painfully light) rain falling. Makes for a pleasant change and will do plant and tree life some good.

Oscar Bravo

Drier brighter weather with sunny spells has arrived in Castlebar from the north west. Better evening ahead

sryanbruen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117647787#Comment_117647787

Just bringing this back up as the Armagh temperature did not pass quality checks and the Castlederg 31.3C is the new official record for Northern Ireland - in spite of that paving.

Tyrone212

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117695438#Comment_117695438

Exactly 50 Celsius temperature range between the coldest and hottest temperature recorded at Castlederg.

Gonzo

A chilly and damp day here in Meath, wouldn't be out of place at the end of October, cloudy, damp with drizzle and 13C.