A new thread for Summer general discussion.
Cloudy start in Greystones. 11.7c atm.
This! I'm baffled by posts about the weather being dry. We've been plagued by heavy rain here in Tralee since the brief fine spell broke down on Friday 28th. Not constant, but I don't think there has been a single dry day since that date and the showers and longer rain spells are very heavy. Here the ground is drenched and my patio flowers, despite my best efforts, are rotting from all the wet. So far it's dry today and I'm taking my chances with a line of washing out, but the sky doesn't look good.
I know last July was atrocious but so far, imo, this July is pretty much its equal and it's definitely colder. Splitting hairs to say which is marginally better or worse.
The bar is very low indeed. We're cursed with a miserable climate of really poor summers and there is no denying that.
you will find that the posters saying how dry the soil is and that rain is needed are all in the Dublin area, this map showing average annual rainfall says it all really.
Strange, the soil here in west Mayo is extremely dry, ground is rock hard.
Anyways, the charts have all flipped again overnight, lol, couldn't care less any more, passed the point where it doesn't even matter. Complete joke.
Every morning the forecast changes.
But of course the US West coast got their heat dome as expected, which was forecast 2 weeks ago.
Heavy showers overnight and early this morning here near Tralee filled up the ponds again, nice sunny spells but showers could threaten ( low chance of isolated thunderstorms it would seem giving heavy localised showers ) , 15.6C just down from a high of 16C.
Since May 1st "only" 71.6mm of rain has fallen here (Dublin Apt data). You'd expect ~137mm by now. Only 52% of average. Quite dry 2018 however had just 23.9mm in the same period, 17% of the average.
Lovely day in Cork...good warmth as well
I will never understand anyone..even from Dublin..looking for rain after we've had 9 months of deluge after deluge of rain. You'd swear we've had a drought..we've had months of wetter than average and then one or two slightly below average. Honestly, this is Ireland, it will rain sooner rather than later!!
Drizzly morning, but ground barely damp. I underestimated how cool it would be today. 12C - should have brought a warm jacket.
Class day in North Ros feeling warm in the sun no wind and little cloud. All I ask for really even if it is 16°
Jan-April were very wet but May/June were 2 dry months with a lot more.evaporation. Hence the soil in Galway is dry now. We have had approx 60% of average rainfall since May 1st. The rivers and lakes are also at very low levels.
Very nice day in Galway today. Heard there were a few heavy showers around but I didn't get one. Warm too.
Well done to Cork. Some performance.
Indeed evaporative rates are far greater at this time of year that a run of low humidity, sunny days (which have the highest evaporation) can lose a lot of moisture in a short period of time that it doesn't matter if there had been a lot of wet weather prior. Not discounting local variation which happens, the soil moisture deficits don't exactly ring alarm bells for me. Most SMDs range between 20 and 45mm currently, exceptions are Valentia/Malin Head which are almost negative SMD so these places have been rather wet of late. This is confirmed by the stats where Malin Head had 30.9mm in the past 7 days, 177% of what it expects in a typical week at this time of year. Valentia has been near average with 21.8mm (98%) but this is the wettest station in the country. Dublin Airport is the other exception which is showing a deficit of 58mm, significantly above anywhere else. I can attest to this as there hasn't been much rain here as already mentioned.
I think as a result, talking of parched soils is a bit grossly exaggerated and premature. If we were seeing widespread SMDs above 70mm then it'd be a different story.
Remember the hosepipe bans of 2018 and 2020? Summer 2017 to mid-spring 2018 was quite a wet period as was summer 2019 to winter 2019-20. Yet hosepipe bans were issued because SMDs reached record highs in places and we had historic "flash droughts" statistically through spring 2020 and summer 2018. However, they don't compare to now. What we have now is much more normal unless we see a flip in the weather patterns and start getting a few weeks of very sunny and very dry weather.
Massive downpour of rain and hail in south laois for a good half hour just now….
oh my july ;-)
Great day in Sligo Sunny all day. 16c . Blue skies. Fcuk the temperatures if its sunny. Might be a cool night though. 6 or 7c
Got back to Galway City this afternoon, big clouds all day just to the east and north but unspoilt sunshine for the last few hours here in Spanish Arch. Great day. Quite cool for July but shorts and a t-shirt nonetheless!
Which day in the next week looks best for a day trip to Bray? Warmish and dry, sunshine a bonus.
Downpour approaching earlier but it was moving so slowly that it took over 4 minutes to travel the few hundred metres to where I was. Must have been moving at walking pace or slower.
Today turned out very nice in Tralee, a first nice, sunny day since the brief fine spell nearly 2 weeks ago. What a difference it makes! I'm prepared to go abroad for my doses of heat and sun, so once I get it dry and reasonably mild at home, like today, I can live with that. But constant rain, I just can't live with.
Out of interest, I looked into how many summer days breached 20C from June 1st to July 7th at Dublin Airport back to 2010:
2024: 4 (same number as May 2024!)
2023: 16
2022: 6
2021: 7
2020: 8
2019: 4
2018: 22
2017: 12
2016: 10
2015: 10
2014: 9
2013: 4
2012: 3
2011: 5
2010: 15
As you can see, 2024 is on the low side but there is plenty of company. However, it's already the latest first 20C of July since 2012 - in 2012, it first happened on the 17th! 2024 is very unlikely to beat 2012 though.
It hasn’t felt like summer that much here since the start of June. Overall hasn’t been that wet, nothing like last July for example but that was extremely wet. Mostly it’s just been cloudy, dry and temps often in the low to mid teens. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Honest to god I can't understand why so many of you think today was lovely.
It's the height of summer and yes sunny at times here in Dublin but no more than 15 degrees with a cool breeze, cloudy a lot of time and rain showers 💁♀️
Now if it was April I would agree it was a grand day but very poor here for July.
Nice day here in Mayo , showers about but dodged them here and nice and warm in the sunshine and light winds.
Turned out a nice day here in Kerry, cleared to fine clear blue skies in the afternoon, calm and just getting to 16C but very pleasant.
I'd say most people calling it lovely were further west than you, in places with less wind.
It was lovely here in Ros most of the day, despite a few brief cold showers. Even felt hot at times in the sun as there was no breeze.
Again this just shows how ridiculous our expectations of summer are.
You'd swear this was the worst summer on record reading some of the comments on here. But all you have to do is look at the stats and see that a summer like this year's has lots and lots of company. July in particular has been poor everywhere even by Irish standards I'll admit - but it's by no means exceptional.
We get a good summer around once every 4 or 5 years (though it would still be poor by most European standards). The other four are just like the one we're getting now really.
Cold start to the day but bright. 7c but you can feel a chill. Tomorrow looks like being an horrendous day in the Eastern half of the country with what looks like non-stop rain for the best part of 24 hours,so this thread should be fun 😁
Absolutely glorious start to the day in the far north.
Bright sunshine and clear blue skies.
How long will it last?
it’s July that’s cold for July
Stunning morning in Dublin...
Gorgeous morning in Dublin
Yeah you're right, it's far from a problem yet. Lazy me just wants to do less watering and easier digging.
You didn't mention June 2023 for SMDs. I remember the grass being almost yellow after the dry May and sunny/hot June 2023 (warmest on record). The ground was like concrete especially sports pitches. I think we didn't get any decent rain for about 6 weeks.
