Worst Irish summer ?

John Joe Jones · 08-06-2015 8:13pm #1

Was it 2008 ?

Into The Blue · 08-06-2015 8:16pm

06.. Had a party in April, and one of the neighbours commented that the nice weather will make for a long summer.. Turned out those few April days were the summer!

I heart TV · 08-06-2015 10:30pm

Into The Blue wrote: »

06..

ermm it was 30 degrees in july 06.

smokie72 · 08-06-2015 11:12pm

I remember 1985 as a pretty poor summer and I would say the same for 2007 and 2008. 2006 was a warm/hot summer apart from August.

Alonso77 · 09-06-2015 12:28am

In recent times, 08 was a washout and 2011 was a chilly dull summer.

RayM · 09-06-2015 12:32am

I remember the summer of 2012 being quite dull. We had a 'mini-heatwave' in late March, but not a lot of sunshine after that.

Into The Blue · 09-06-2015 7:27am

I heart TV wrote: »

ermm it was 30 degrees in july 06.

What was 05 like? Maybe it was then..

dogmatix · 09-06-2015 8:31am

All of the summers 2007 - 2012 where terrible, 2012 being especially bad. 2003 and 2006 where reasonably good.

Cee-Jay-Cee · 09-06-2015 8:50am

Into The Blue wrote: »

06.. Had a party in April, and one of the neighbours commented that the nice weather will make for a long summer.. Turned out those few April days were the summer!

Not a good omen for this year!

_Brian · 09-06-2015 8:54am

1985 was awful.
Rain most days, hay barley and most crops were a disaster.

imitation · 09-06-2015 8:59am

Yeah 06 was good, remember it well, it was my last summer "off" with college before I became a working man. Spent most of it gaming in a sweltering dormer and watching the odd world cup game. I think as others said 2007 til 2012 was crap, gray day after gray day.

Reckless Abandonment · 09-06-2015 9:16am

For me it had to be 2011.. It just felt cold all summer. I remember living in hope of a warm day that didn't come

Red Kev · 09-06-2015 9:22am

smokie72 wrote: »

I remember 1985 as a pretty poor summer and I would say the same for 2007 and 2008. 2006 was a warm/hot summer apart from August.

_Brian wrote: »

1985 was awful.
Rain most days, hay barley and most crops were a disaster.

1985 without a doubt, 86 wasn't much better. Around where I live in Roscommon, 1985 was one of the last years people all made hay. Almost everybody turned to silage after that summer as you don't need the same weather for it. Caused a lot of economic hardship for a couple of years as well as the price of feed rose and that of cattle dropped.

We never got the turf home that summer either, just turned and turned it, but it was just wet muck. People who had money started to go to oil fired central heating.

You could say it changed traditional farming practices here a good bit.

babybuilder · 09-06-2015 9:31am

Red Kev wrote: »

1985 without a doubt, 86 wasn't much better. Around where I live in Roscommon, 1985 was one of the last years people all made hay. Almost everybody turned to silage after that summer as you don't need the same weather for it. Caused a lot of economic hardship for a couple of years as well as the price of feed rose and that of cattle dropped.

We never got the turf home that summer either, just turned and turned it, but it was just wet muck. People who had money started to go to oil fired central heating.

You could say it changed traditional farming practices here a good bit.

I was in the States in 1985 and remember every time I phoned home the weather was awful. The summers 1985-1988 were very wet as far as winning the turf and hay were concerned. Not sure the temperatures were as low as they are this summer. '83, '84 '89 were excellent.

JM Skipton · 09-06-2015 9:47am

Into The Blue wrote: »

What was 05 like? Maybe it was then..

05 and 06 were decent summers, I think you may be thinking of 07. we had a very dry April and then rain once the greens were voted in. The hit of the summer was Umbrella by Rhianna which proved to be very apt.
Worst summer I can remember was 1985, it was that bad Irish people started to hallucinate some even saw statues move.....

Into The Blue · 09-06-2015 10:01am

JM Skipton wrote: »

05 and 06 were decent summers, I think you may be thinking of 07. we had a very dry April and then rain once the greens were voted in. The hit of the summer was Umbrella by Rhianna which proved to be very apt.
Worst summer I can remember was 1985, it was that bad Irish people started to hallucinate some even saw statues move.....

In in trouble now, texted my wife to ask her when did we have a party around 06..

Turns out it was our engagement party, April 07. Doh!

D9Male · 09-06-2015 10:46am

I lived in London from 2000 to early 2007. Every summer in Dublin was poor from 2007 to 2012. 07 and 09 in particular I seem to remember. For some bizarre reason each September seemed dry and settled. March and April too.

The last two years have redressed the balance a fair bit.

JM Skipton · 09-06-2015 11:25am

Into The Blue wrote: »

In in trouble now, texted my wife to ask her when did we have a party around 06..

Turns out it was our engagement party, April 07. Doh!

Spare room for you tonight so!:D

Harry Palmr · 09-06-2015 12:45pm

1985 will never be beaten! Worst year of utterly "mediocre" weather from start to finish that I can remember.

John Joe Jones · 13-06-2015 11:34am

2010 was the best of the very bad lot from 2007-2012.

Schadenfreudia · 21-06-2015 2:22am

I can say, without fear of contradiction (:)), that 1985 was the worst summer in the past 50 years.

Jpmarn · 22-06-2015 9:38am

I remember 1980 being a pretty poor summer. In recent years I have looked at the weather records for Shannon Airport and the season max temperature was only 22c making one of the coldest summer.

Sam Kade · 22-06-2015 9:43am

Schadenfreudia wrote: »

I can say, without fear of contradiction (:)), that 1985 was the worst summer in the past 50 years.

2012 would be up there with it.

Sam Kade · 22-06-2015 9:45am

Jpmarn wrote: »

I remember 1980 being a pretty poor summer. In recent years I have looked at the weather records for Shannon Airport and the season max temperature was only 22c making one of the coldest summer.

1980 wasn't bad 1981 was a washout.

mud_raker · 27-06-2015 11:07am

people have a habit of looking back and viewing things as either way better or way worse than they actually were , this is the case with viewing 1985 as being the worst ever , in reality if you look at statistics , 1985 wasn't even as wet as 2008 , let alone 2012 which takes top spot for the wettest summer and year on record

add to the fact that for farmers , machinery was smaller in 1985 and jobs took longer so it makes it look like things were especially grim during difficult conditions

Schadenfreudia · 27-06-2015 12:36pm

mud_raker wrote: »

people have a habit of looking back and viewing things as either way better or way worse than they actually were , this is the case with viewing 1985 as being the worst ever , in reality if you look at statistics , 1985 wasn't even as wet as 2008 , let alone 2012 which takes top spot for the wettest summer and year on record

add to the fact that for farmers , machinery was smaller in 1985 and jobs took longer so it makes it look like things were especially grim during difficult conditions

It's not just rainfall that makes a bad summer! It's duration (all three months); concentration (heavy downpours v same rain spread over much longer periods) the temperature, the amount of stormy weather.

For example August 2012 was warmer and dryer than average; two bad months will never make a record breaking season.

1985 tops the worst summer using multiple criteria.

And I'm not a farmer

Jpmarn · 27-06-2015 12:53pm

mud_raker wrote: »

people have a habit of looking back and viewing things as either way better or way worse than they actually were , this is the case with viewing 1985 as being the worst ever , in reality if you look at statistics , 1985 wasn't even as wet as 2008 , let alone 2012 which takes top spot for the wettest summer and year on record

add to the fact that for farmers , machinery was smaller in 1985 and jobs took longer so it makes it look like things were especially grim during difficult conditions

Yes farmers had a dire time in 1985 and 1980 where the only choice of winter fodder was to dry out the grass (hay) or ensiling into a big pit (silage). This silage was not on for the majority of farms. It was popular with larger farms with free draining soils. The machinery used with get stuck on heavier land. For hay it was made with a lot of difficulty and was of very poor quality. In the late 80s and early 90s round or big bale silage became popular and is a solution to the majority of farms in our changeable summer weather.

RobertKK · 27-06-2015 12:55pm

My father says 1946 was a bad summer, and there was poor fodder for the cattle who had to endure the winter of 1947.
I remember 1985, another very wet summer.
Recently 2012 was awful.

For 2012 my weather station recorded the following rainfall:
June 178.6mm
July 83mm
August 130.6mm
Total 392.2mm

There was another summer in the mid 2000s that was really bad, had Kilkenny weather station then and it was something similar to 2012.

RobertKK · 27-06-2015 1:07pm

Jpmarn wrote: »

Yes farmers had a dire time in 1985 and 1980 where the only choice of winter fodder was to dry out the grass (hay) or ensiling into a big pit (silage). This silage was not on for the majority of farms. It was popular with larger farms with free draining soils. The machinery used with get stuck on heavier land. For hay it was made with a lot of difficulty and was of very poor quality. In the late 80s and early 90s round or big bale silage became popular and is a solution to the majority of farms in our changeable summer weather.

So so true.

We made hay, as children we would stack the bales in the field, I bet you remember too, knots out and at the bottom on the square bales.

I think in 1986, the weather wasn't coming good again and we made pit silage, I was only a child, but looking back and the machinery we had then, all I can think of is the hardship my father must have had, no silage grab to move it...we only made it once and then it was round bales and then baled silage.

Though summers like 2012 would still give one nightmares...

ComfortKid · 27-06-2015 1:15pm

2007. The summer with Rihannas umbrella song. 06 was one of our best summers along with 2013

mud_raker · 27-06-2015 3:56pm

Schadenfreudia wrote: »

It's not just rainfall that makes a bad summer! It's duration (all three months); concentration (heavy downpours v same rain spread over much longer periods) the temperature, the amount of stormy weather.

For example August 2012 was warmer and dryer than average; two bad months will never make a record breaking season.

1985 tops the worst summer using multiple criteria.

And I'm not a farmer

well I am a ( part time ) farmer , I bought a farm in 2012 and could not find one day in august of 2012 to plough , it rained every single day and after starting to plough one field around the fifteenth of august , we had to stop for nearly three week , I got one good week from around the third of septmeber to the tenth to get the work done , then it rained again for six months , spring 2013 was easily the worst spring on record and you wont find a farmer who disagrees

mud_raker · 27-06-2015 3:59pm

Jpmarn wrote: »

Yes farmers had a dire time in 1985 and 1980 where the only choice of winter fodder was to dry out the grass (hay) or ensiling into a big pit (silage). This silage was not on for the majority of farms. It was popular with larger farms with free draining soils. The machinery used with get stuck on heavier land. For hay it was made with a lot of difficulty and was of very poor quality. In the late 80s and early 90s round or big bale silage became popular and is a solution to the majority of farms in our changeable summer weather.

most tractors were two wheel drive in 1985 and you would be doing well to bring in twenty acres of silage in a day , big outfits can easily manage fifty acres per day now and small farms go with bales

like I said , even you look at the statistics , several years from 2002 ( which was also wetter than 1985 ) to 2012 were worse than 1985 , 2008 was worse and 2009 was bad too , 2012 has no equal so far in terms of volume which fell

mud_raker · 27-06-2015 4:03pm

ComfortKid wrote: »

2007. The summer with Rihannas umbrella song. 06 was one of our best summers along with 2013

great summers I can remember

1989 ( very good )
1993 ( fairly good )
1995 ( best ever by a mile )
2003 ( special Olympics was on in Ireland )
2006 ( july was exceptional , world cup in Germany was on )
2013 ( best since 1995 )
2014 ( fantastic and while not as good as 2013 , the autumn was better than 2013 , weather stayed very good until November )

Schadenfreudia · 27-06-2015 5:32pm

mud_raker wrote: »

great summers I can remember

There's a whole thread on the best summers!

We are looking for the worst here

Schadenfreudia · 27-06-2015 5:36pm

mud_raker wrote: »

well I am a ( part time ) farmer , I bought a farm in 2012 and could not find one day in august of 2012 to plough , it rained every single day and after starting to plough one field around the fifteenth of august , we had to stop for nearly three week , I got one good week from around the third of septmeber to the tenth to get the work done , then it rained again for six months , spring 2013 was easily the worst spring on record and you wont find a farmer who disagrees

You must be in the wrong part of the country

August 2012 here was very average; slightly milder and dryer than usual - according to the Phoenix Park station, which generally gives the closest match to my station.

Jpmarn · 27-06-2015 10:28pm

August was the best of the three summer months in 2012. But August the average temperature was near normal with rainfall just above. June and July were much wetter and cooler with average temperature at Shannon Airport about 2c below normal.

JM Skipton · 27-06-2015 11:24pm

Jpmarn wrote: »

August was the best of the three summer months in 2012. But August the average temperature was near normal with rainfall just above. June and July were much wetter and cooler with average temperature at Shannon Airport about 2c below normal.

August unfortunately has been the problem child of summers since 1995, with the exception of 2003 we have had either average or shocking Augusts since, even 2013,which is remembered as a very good summer, had an extremely average August.

JCX BXC · 30-06-2015 5:35pm

2012 was a terrible year.

20silkcut · 02-07-2015 4:41pm

Yes can't understand the ambiguity about 2012 considering it was so recent. It was an horrendously bad summer with no redeeming features. It was so bad we had to import forage from uk and the continent the following spring which even the oldest farmers never remember happening before.

Farms were not as heavily stocked in 1985 either.

Schadenfreudia · 02-07-2015 6:14pm

20silkcut wrote: »

Yes can't understand the ambiguity about 2012 considering it was so recent.

I think we are only haggling about August, which was just an average month.

20silkcut · 02-07-2015 8:01pm

Schadenfreudia wrote: »

I think we are only haggling about August, which was just an average month.

If I remember correctly there was a heat wave forecast in mid to late august 2012 and MT cranium being confounded when despite all meteorological pointers being positive it failed miserably to materialise and just became three or four days that rained less with above average temperatures.
I remember one particular day in mid July the news at one led with the weather and Sean o rourke describing it as "rotten summer weather" .
Almost every week that summer the farmers journal headlined a weather story and tucked in the middle of the paper they had archive pics of sunny summers long ago just to really drive home what a bad bad summer it was.
IMO it was without doubt game set and match the worst summer in my living memory which also includes 1985.
At least we had the epic thunder in 85.

Schadenfreudia · 02-07-2015 8:14pm

20silkcut wrote: »

IMO it was without doubt game set and match the worst summer in my living memory which also includes 1985.
At least we had the epic thunder in 85.

Alas the statistics don't support you - '85 was worse by a wide margin!

And it was 1986, not 1985, which gave the epic lightening storm.....

smokie72 · 02-07-2015 10:37pm

1986 did have a thunderstorm in late June. It was the weekend of the World cup finals and I remember Jimmy Mcgee mentioning that there were electrical storms in Ireland that were interverning with the reception of the 3rd place play off. It was also the evening Simple Minds played in Croke Park. That was a thunderstorm to remember but the daddy of them all was in 1985 (25th/26th July). That was an epic storm that I will never forget til the day I die and I thought I would that night!

2012 was a dire summer alright but for me 2007,2008,2009 and 2011 were very poor too. I was working on a golf course during the summers of 07 and 08 and I just remember been wet and cold most of the time. It was such a change from 2006 that it was hard to comprehend. Those bad summers also tied in with the start of the recession as well. It seemed the good times were over.

Abhainn · 03-07-2015 5:44pm

Echo most here that 1985 was absolutely cat, well especially in Sligo. 1986 only slightly better

We "recked" hay then and had to mix salt with it so the cows would eat it.
Turned out then that Oct was the best Oct in decades. Managed to save most of the turf then and while it was dry all the goodness in it was gone.

Abhainn · 03-07-2015 5:44pm

Echo most here that 1985 was absolutely cat, well especially in Sligo. 1986 only slightly better

We "recked" hay then and had to mix salt with it so the cows would eat it.
Turned out then that Oct was the best Oct in decades. Managed to save most of the turf then and while it was dry all the goodness in it was gone.

brighterdays · 08-07-2015 2:40pm

Might be a bit premature but I'm saying this one we're currently in. The temps might be alright, but it's overcast 80% of the time. There hasn't been a blue sky in Limerick since last Friday. Only rain and clouds. It's awful. If it's not the worst, it's definitely close enough.

syklops · 08-07-2015 6:00pm

brighterdays wrote: »

Might be a bit premature but I'm saying this one we're currently in. The temps might be alright, but it's overcast 80% of the time. There hasn't been a blue sky in Limerick since last Friday. Only rain and clouds. It's awful. If it's not the worst, it's definitely close enough.

Close enough being the operative phrase. Today isnt so bad, but yesterday was horrible.

syklops · 08-07-2015 6:05pm

This thread reminds of this:

road_high · 09-07-2015 10:31pm

brighterdays wrote: »

Might be a bit premature but I'm saying this one we're currently in. The temps might be alright, but it's overcast 80% of the time. There hasn't been a blue sky in Limerick since last Friday. Only rain and clouds. It's awful. If it's not the worst, it's definitely close enough.

No feckin way! I actually think it's been pretty damn good so far. Here in the south east anyhow, the whole month of June was virtually dry. Even the past few days haven't been too bad. Today started off dull but a lot of the mid-day and afternoon were warm and sunny. Which has been a typical pattern for many of the days. We've had some cracking sunshine in June especially. Parts of May were good too.
Maybe it's been like that in the west and mid-west but definitely not in the East and South east.
There's loads and loads of hay saved around and I always see that as a barometer of good weather as it's impossible to save without some sunshine, dry weather and a little wind!

seamusk84 · 09-07-2015 10:38pm

I was a caddy as a teenager and invariably spent the summers outdoors. I remember 1998 I got wet a hell of a lot!
Anyone else remember that a washout that Summer was?

syklops · 09-07-2015 11:15pm

road_high wrote: »

No feckin way! I actually think it's been pretty damn good so far. Here in the south east anyhow, the whole month of June was virtually dry. Even the past few days haven't been too bad. Today started off dull but a lot of the mid-day and afternoon were warm and sunny. Which has been a typical pattern for many of the days. We've had some cracking sunshine in June especially. Parts of May were good too.
Maybe it's been like that in the west and mid-west but definitely not in the East and South east.
There's loads and loads of hay saved around and I always see that as a barometer of good weather as it's impossible to save without some sunshine, dry weather and a little wind!

In the sunny south east? In Leinster it has been warm, overcast and close, with rain occasional and sometimes plenty.

Even in a small country like Ireland different parts of the country experience difference kinds of weather. So dont come on here with your south east coast, jayze tiz feckin brilliant weather, carry on. In Leinster, Meath, Westmeath, Galway the last week or so has not been good with overcast, warm but really clammy weather with heavy breezes in most areas.

Worst Irish summer ?

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