Summer 2021 General Discussion

Did you here me complaining about the sun lately? I am complaining about this all encompassing heat and humidity that has come with it. Practically no sun up about the 15th July and then when it did come out, we get burnt alive.. literally, and not even the slightest bit of breeze the ease the misery.

@Tilden, I like the cooling properties of water also, which is what I love summer rains. Most people don't it seems, but I find them cooling & replenishing and they also work well as a great chav repellent. The 'F.L.A.B' (C/O Su Campu) is mercifully washed away from our streets, if just for a all too short moment in time.

Excellent post, sums it all up.

Another sunny morning in Leitrim. We've had a breeze the last few days which was more than welcome.

The end of a great spell of weather is now touching Belmullet. By 9pm there will be more cloud in the West. Last night sleeping on the quilt instead of under it. Still think there will be many nice days in August too though the next week looks poor.

Anyways 23c today seems as high as Sligo is going. Cloudless still.

Thick fog this morning here in Achill, but it cleared quickly to a warm, clear breezy day. Much fresher this evening. I just closed the windows for the first time in over a week.

Personally delighted to see the end of this. This weather makes me feel ill and have absolutely awful headaches

The pants must be too tight

Predicted temperature anomaly for the first week of August .

Is there any forecast to suggest we might get more heat this Summer or is that it? So sad to see it go, found it very hot but am sooo getting used to it!!!

Looking at the GFS and ECM it's not looking too bad next weekend at the moment? Bit of ridging going on or am I seeing things?

Yup. missing the decent enough warmth (relative to Ireland) and sun big time already. Feels quite chilly out there (North Kildare), requiring a light jacket to keep the chill at bay. It's currently 12° colder in my back garden now compared to 18:00 yesterday!

Already thinking about booking a week or two away somewhere warmer and sunnier with temperatures preferably in excess of 30°. Looking at a lovely quiet place I went to in southeast Sicily last year when restrictions were lifted for a while in late summer, where I just went for walks, lay in the sun, paddled in the pool and cooked outdoors at the villa....pure relaxation and always warm, day and night. I was 5 minutes walk away from a beautiful beach but funnily enough I never actually stepped foot on it as I wanted the proper heat to be felt as much as possible. Temperatures over the next week there are from the low to mid, sometimes high 30's.....the temptation is growing! Huge thunderstorms would form only a few kilometres inland every single day and I did drive out one of the days to experience one of them.

Now that the heatwave is officially over for all stations with no chance of anywhere reaching 25C or more today, time to analyse the statistics of it.

First off, here is the daily maxima table of all synoptic stations and Durrow/Kilkenny climate stations from 16-25 July. A total of 6 of the selected 27 stations kept heatwave conditions throughout (achieving at least 25C each day) for the 10 consecutive days - these being Athenry, Ballyhaise, Claremorris, Moore Park, Mount Dillon and Shannon Airport. Some stations like Durrow and Kilkenny fell short on 24th July so they had 8 consecutive days instead.

Secondly, here is a table of all the past heatwaves I have analysed (one station per heatwave based on which station had the longest duration and the highest mean max) with all the 2021 station heatwaves included too. As mentioned, the July 2021 heatwave lasted for 10 days for those stations which maintained heatwave status throughout the period. This was not as long as the late June/early July 2018 heatwave which lasted up to 18 consecutive days at Kilkenny and was the longest on available record. However, the fact it lasted 10 consecutive days makes it the longest 'mid-summer' heatwave since 1995 which might be hard for some to believe and frankly, I find it a bit mad myself.

Here's the above table condensed to only include all the past July heatwaves including 1976 and 2018 even though they began in June. If we don't include those two which began in June, July 2021 was the longest July heatwave on available record with the previous record of 9 consecutive days held by July 1934, July 1983, July 1989 and July 2013.

The July 1989 and 2013 heatwaves, particularly the 2013 one which tends to be remembered more, were longer in most people's minds I'm sure than this July's one. However, both were broken up by a few days of cooler conditions mid-month like in the case of 2013, the heatwave for most stations lasted from 8-12 July (5 consecutive days) with some lasting 6-13 July and in the case of Cashel in the table below, 6-14 July. The Azores High ridge weakened by the 13-14 July with cloud and cooler air filtering in from the northwest bringing an end to the statistical heatwave. However, we had seen a reinvigoration of the ridge by the 17 July with very warm or hot conditions returning but heatwave conditions (5 consecutive days of 25C or more) were not met and this would end already by 21/22 July.

31.2C at Durrow on 22 July was Ireland's highest July temperature since 2006 and third highest since 1983 to my knowledge.

Other things to remember from this heatwave which have already been noted but I'll summarise as a reminder to keep all in one post:

• The 7-day period 16-22 July was the sunniest July 7-day period on record for Dublin Airport and sunniest for any 7-day period since late June/early July 2018.
• Gurteen reached its peak of 29C at 8 p.m. on 19 July, very late for a temperature that high in Ireland.
• Valentia Observatory recorded 2 consecutive tropical nights on 22 and 23 July. The first time tropical nights have been recorded consecutively in Ireland as well as at an synoptic station and first since August 2001 anywhere in the country.