2016 Weather - Stats, Memorable Events & 2017 Predictions

The stormy end of 2015 continued into early 2016, as the north Atlantic Jet Stream continued to steer windy, wet and yet very mild weather over Ireland during January and much of February. This unsettled pattern persisted through spring also, characterized by frequent frontal passages alternating with short periods of high pressure. However, high pressure prevailed from the latter part of May well into June bringing a lot of fine, settled and sunny weather. The rest of the summer period was changeable again, as several Atlantic depressions affected the country. Nevertheless a brief fine spell between 17th and 19th of July brought the warmest days of the year. The autumn season began unsettled, but then an anticyclone dominated through October, November and much of December; a period noted for mainly dry weather and slack winds. However conditions changed abruptly as Atlantic depressions brought heavy rain and strong winds over the Christmas period, though conditions did abate and it remained mild till the end of the year.

Temperature: mainly above Average; 17th warmest year since 1900
Almost all annual mean air temperatures were on or slightly above their Long-term Average (LTA). The coolest monthly conditions were in parts of the South in November with differences of over -2.5°C from LTA, while the warmest conditions were in parts of the West in June with deviations of near 2°C. Annual mean temperature differences from LTA ranged from -0.3°C at Markree, Co Sligo with an annual mean temperature of 9.3°C to 0.6°C at Dublin (Phoenix Park) with an annual mean temperature of 10.3°C. The highest temperatures were recorded in mid-July with the highest temperature of 2016 reported at Mount Dillion, Co Roscommon on July 19th with 30.4°C. The lowest temperatures of the year were recorded at the end of both February and November with the lowest air temperature of 2016 was reported at Markree, Co Sligo on November 25th with -7.3°C, while the year’s lowest grass temperature was reported on February 24th with -10.4°C at Carlow (Oak Park). In a time series of five long-term stations, 2016 ranks provisionally as the 17th warmest since 1900.

Rainfall: record breaking daily rainfall at Valentia Observatory
Annual rainfall totals were mainly below their Average. The driest month relative to LTA was October with the majority of stations reporting around 50% or less of LTA. The wettest monthly conditions were in parts of the South in February with stations reporting near or over double their average rainfall. Annual percentage of LTA values ranged from 78%?at Mace Head, Co Galway with 1046.7 mm to 104% at Valentia Observatory, Co Kerry with 1616.9 mm. The wettest day was reported in the Southwest on October 3rd as a slow moving frontal system affected the area, the highest daily rainfall reported at synoptic station was 105.5 mm at Valentia Observatory, Co Kerry, its wettest day since the station opened in 1866.

Sunshine: highest daily sunshine reported at Malin Head
Annual sunshine totals were lowest at Knock Airport with an annual total of 1099.6 hours (daily mean of 3.0 hrs/day). The highest annual sunshine total was 1411.5 hours (daily mean 3.9 hrs/day) at Dublin Airport*. The sunniest day for 2016 was reported on June 2nd at Malin Head, Co Donegal* with 15.8 hours. The number of dull days ranged from 78 at Dublin Airport* to 123 at Knock Airport.

Wind: Storm Imogen records year’s highest gust
Annual mean wind speeds ranged from 5.8 knots (10.7 km/h) at Fermoy (Moore Park), Co Cork to 14.4 knots (26.7 km/h) at Mace Head, Co Galway. Both the year’s highest gust and the highest 10-minute mean wind speed were recorded at Sherkin Island, Co Cork during Storm Imogen (on Feb 8th) with 73 knots (135 km/h) and 54 knots (100 km/h), respectively.

Read about it here: http://www.met.ie/climate/monthly-weather-reports.asp

axe2grind wrote: »

Apart from Cork AP where else was it sunniest on record?

It was the sunniest on record because it set a new Ireland record for November sunshine.

Grange's 2016 summary

Rather wet, mild and sunny.

Rainfall: Rather wet but drier than 2014 and 2015.
I recorded a rainfall total of 718.2mm (102% of the LTA) during 2016. This wasn't a remarkably wet year by any means as it was only 2% wetter than the 1986-2006 average and was drier than 2014 and 2015. 8 of the 12 months were wetter than normal but many of them besides January and April were unremarkably wet and were really only wet overall because of some very wet days (May in particular). I recorded my highest daily rainfall of 39.2mm on April 11th, my second wettest April day on record. Both January (with 112.0mm, 196% of the LTA) and April (with 104.0mm, 217% of the LTA) were my second wettest on record with January 2014 and April 2012 wetter. February (with 61.2mm, 133% of the LTA), March (with 46.1mm, 105% of the LTA), May (with 60.5mm, 116% of the LTA), June (with 78.4mm, 129% of the LTA), August (with 77.1mm, 112% of the LTA) and September (with 53.0mm, 106% of the LTA) were all unremarkably wet. July, October, November and December were very dry. July recorded only 27.1mm (49% of the LTA) of rainfall which made it the driest month of the year here, driest July since 2006 and November coming up second with 29.8mm (42% of the LTA), sixth driest November on record. December recorded 33.3mm (53% of the LTA) and was my driest December since 2010, October recorded 36.2mm (41% of the LTA) and was my driest October since 2007. I recorded a good number of dry spells during the year with these come to mind: March 9th-23rd (14 days), April 19th-24th (6 days), May 13th-17th (5 days) & May 23rd-June 5th (14 days), August 5th-16th (11 days, despite recording 2.2mm of rainfall on the 10th), October 2nd-11th (9 days) and November 23rd-December 5th (13 days). These very dry months and spells combined with the unremarkably wet months made 2016 a very forgettable year rainfall wise.

Temperature: Second warmest of the 2010s so far.
I recorded a mean temperature of 9.8c (+0.4c above the LTA) during 2016 which made it the second warmest year of the 2010s so far after 2014 and barely beating 2011 (which had 9.7c). 7 of the 12 months came out warmer than average whilst 4 came out colder than average and 1 came out exactly average. Unlike the rainfall, many of the warm months were very significant with June and September in particular being record-breaking. June recorded a mean temperature of 14.9c (+2.2c above the LTA) and September recorded a mean temperature of 14.9c also, ironically (+2.7c above the LTA), both of which were their warmest respective months on record. July was my equal-fourth warmest on record with a mean temperature of 16.4c (+1.6c above the LTA). August was my second warmest on record with a mean temperature of 16.3c (+2.5c above the LTA). Summer was my second warmest on record with a mean temperature of 15.9c (+2.2c above the LTA). Despite the anticyclonic conditions, December was the third warmest on record with a mean temperature of 6.3c (+1.8c above the LTA). It was still -2.2c cooler than December 2015 though. January and May were unremarkably mild with 5.2c (+0.6c above the LTA) and 11.9c (+0.6c above the LTA) respectively. October was the month with the exact average temperature of 10.4c. November was the second coldest on record with a mean temperature of 5.1c (-2.5c below the LTA). February, March and April were all unremarkably cold with 4.2c (-0.4c below the LTA), 5.7c (-1.8c below the LTA) and 6.6c (-1.9c below the LTA) respectively. For the first three months of the year, INCLUDING MARCH, I recorded my maximum temperature on January 24th with 15.1c, my highest January temperature since 1998 and a minimum temperature of 12.6c on the same day, my warmest January night on record. This meant that the 24th had a mean daily temperature of 13.9c!!!, which became my warmest January day on record as a result. Even the following day, the 25th had a max. of 13.2c and a min. of 12.1c which meant a mean daily temperature of 12.7c!!! The 25th became my second warmest January day on record. I recorded my minimum temperature for 2016 of -6.3c on February 15th. My March maximum temperature of 14.2c on the 12th did not even beat my January maximum which was crazy. Even though January started off cold, well early to mid-month as the very beginning was relatively mild, these remarkably mild temperatures and other mild days in the second half gave away to a mild January overall. With the exception of June 10th, I recorded a maximum of at least 20c on each day from May 30th-June 12th. I recorded a maximum of 22.4c on May 12th which became my highest temperature for such an early time in the year since March 2012. I bet this on June 6th with a maximum of 24.2c which gave away to frequent lightning strikes and a minimum of 14.8c, one of my warmest June nights on record. I bet this max. again on July 15th with 25.4c. It only took three days to break this and on July 18th, I recorded a max. of 27.1c. And yes, it's not over, I broke this temperature once again on July 19th, the very next day with a max. of 28.6c, my ninth warmest day on record. With a minimum of 19.8c, it was also my third warmest night ever recorded. I recorded a temperature of at least 20c every day from July 15th-24th. August did not break the July maximum but it did have a large number of some warm days with 20 days recording at least 20c which was the second highest for August. Summer overall recorded 44 days with 20c or more which was a huge improvement on 2015. September 5th became my warmest September day on record with a maximum of 26.9c. The next day, the 6th with a maximum of 25.2c became one of my warmest September days on record also. The 6th recorded my highest all-time September mean daily temperature though with 21.9c (the minimum was a smashing 18.5c!! my warmest September night on record without a doubt). I recorded a maximum of 24.1c as late as September 28th which nearly equaled with 2011 (I recorded 25.4c on September 28 2011) as the highest temperature for so late in the year. I recorded a maximum of only 1.6c on November 20th, my fifth lowest for November on record, 2010 took all the other four spots. The devil really is in the detail for the temperatures of 2016 but overall, it was not remarkable at all.

Sunshine: 6th sunniest year on record. Only June and July dull.
I recorded a total of 1594 hours of sunshine (111% of the LTA) which made it the sixth sunniest year on record at Grange. 10 of the 12 months were sunnier than normal with only June and July dull, yes even September was sunnier than normal. The year started off with one of my sunniest Januarys on record with 75 hours (132% of the LTA) though still a long way short of January 2015's total of 94 hours. February was relatively sunny with 80 hours (105% of the LTA) so was nothing outstanding. March was quite sunny but like February was nothing remarkable with 125 hours (120% of the LTA) in comparison with many recent sunny Marches (every March bar 2013 since 2007 has been sunnier than normal). April came out very close to the average but was still sunny with 169 hours (102% of the LTA). This was the third consecutive year with the first 4 months being sunnier than normal. May turned out very sunny with 241 hours (127% of the LTA) and in fact was my second sunniest May on record with only 2000 sunnier. May 2016 was only 3 hours short of April 2015's remarkable total of 244 hours. By this point of the year, I was already up to 690 hours of my normal 1438 hours for the whole year which made it the 5th sunniest start to the year on record. June and July ended this run of sunnier than normal months though with 160 hours (90% of the LTA), dullest June since 1987 and 150 hours (87% of the LTA), dullest July since 1986, respectively. Out of all my duller than normal Julys however, it was the second sunniest of them. August turned out sunnier than normal as a nice end to the average but warm Summer with 155 hours (110% of the LTA), my sunniest August since 2010. September was a complete contrast with all Irish stations as I recorded 144 hours (117% of the LTA!) and was my 4th sunniest September on record! In September 2015, I recorded 165 hours and no Irish station didn't come close to my total then, so that's two very sunny Septembers in a row here. October recorded 121 hours (123% of the LTA) and was my sunniest October since 2010. I have had a frequent run of dull Octobers since 2011 with only 2014 sunnier (however, October 2015 was sunnier than normal using the 1986-2006 average). November recorded 108 hours (142% of the LTA) and was easily my sunniest November on record beating 98 hours set in 2006 and 2010. December was nothing spectacular but it was sunny nevertheless with 66 hours (116% of the LTA). I recorded my sunniest day of 15.4 hours on June 3rd, my sunniest day since 2010. I think May and November 2016 will stay in my mind for years to come because of their sunshine totals.

Finally done my summary!

EDIT: Genie mac, it turned out much longer than I had anticipated. Sorry about that.

sryanbruen wrote: »

January - Very cold and rather wet but sunny.
February - Fairly mild, wet and dull.
March - Rather warm, wet and sunny.
April - Warm, dry and sunny.
May - Very cool, dull and wet.
June - Pleasantly warm and dry. Very sunny.
July - Very sunny, dry and warm.
August - Warm, wet and dull.
September - Fairly cool, wet and sunny.
October - Very wet, stormy and mild.
November - Another very sunny November but wet and mild.
December - Cold, dull and fairly dry.

I don't think I've been doing too badly so far with my 2017 predictions though January was well off :rolleyes: but you should expect that especially given how unique the QBO of 2016/17 is. Here are the actual summaries so far to compare:

January - Very anticyclonic, mild and rather sunny.
February - Mild, wet and very dull.
March - Mild, wet and rather average sunshine.

sryanbruen wrote: »

May - Very cool, dull and wet.

I did absolutely terrible with my May prediction :pac: BUT for the better. I'm glad that my prediction was wrong. I bet that you all were the same in hoping my prediction would be wrong?