Drought/Low Rainfall Watch - Summer 2018

M.T. Cranium · 23-10-2018 1:51am

I was just updating the contest after three weeks of October, and so far the amount has averaged 74% of normal around the country, the first and third weeks were both quite dry, and the second week was relatively wet.

It would not surprise me if things turn around at some point in the next 2-4 months and we see a month with much above normal rainfall. The most likely month for that, or period, would be mid-November to mid-December. If it does turn quite cold after that, it's hard to get to even half normal precipitation in any colder month as there's a combination of dry weather and snow which has to be reduced by a factor of about ten to get liquid equivalent. So even a heavy snow pack that lasts several weeks may not represent more than half normal precipitation for that time period.

Even a normal amount of rainfall in November is going to seem like a lot after so many dry months, as an average November can produce over 100 mm of rain in some parts.

BlackandGreen · 23-10-2018 7:04am

It's now late october and every night our water is still being turned off from after 8pm to around 6:30am.
The pressure doesn't fully restore until about 7am. I'm lucky we have 2 showers in the house, because the electric shower doesn't work with the low water pressure, so I have to use the other one which takes water from the immersion.
I'd be screwed in the morning otherwise. I wonder how many other families in my area aren't able to wash themselves before work because of it.
I wonder at what stage the nearby reservoirs will return to normal levels or if this drought will continue well up to december, we haven't gotten much rain at all even in the last month.
Scary to think what might happen if we don't get some, and this could happen next year too.

Cantona's Collars · 29-10-2018 1:17pm

Large forest fire on Mt. Leinster yesterday. At first I thought it was low cloud and then noticed it was huge plumes of smoke from the fire on the East face.

hinault · 01-11-2018 2:04pm

BlackandGreen wrote: »

It's now late october and every night our water is still being turned off from after 8pm to around 6:30am.
The pressure doesn't fully restore until about 7am. I'm lucky we have 2 showers in the house, because the electric shower doesn't work with the low water pressure, so I have to use the other one which takes water from the immersion.
I'd be screwed in the morning otherwise. I wonder how many other families in my area aren't able to wash themselves before work because of it.
I wonder at what stage the nearby reservoirs will return to normal levels or if this drought will continue well up to december, we haven't gotten much rain at all even in the last month.
Scary to think what might happen if we don't get some, and this could happen next year too.

It would appear that since the end of the hot/heatwave we had during the summer, the rainfall deficit issue - at governmental/local authority levels - has become less of a priority.

The rainfall deficit that was there during the hot period remains because rainfall amounts since the end of the heatwave remain below replenishment thresholds.

The state authorities should be trying to encourage water harvesting, due to the continuing rainfall deficits, in my opinion

hinault · 01-11-2018 2:04pm

BlackandGreen wrote: »

It's now late october and every night our water is still being turned off from after 8pm to around 6:30am.
The pressure doesn't fully restore until about 7am. I'm lucky we have 2 showers in the house, because the electric shower doesn't work with the low water pressure, so I have to use the other one which takes water from the immersion.
I'd be screwed in the morning otherwise. I wonder how many other families in my area aren't able to wash themselves before work because of it.
I wonder at what stage the nearby reservoirs will return to normal levels or if this drought will continue well up to december, we haven't gotten much rain at all even in the last month.
Scary to think what might happen if we don't get some, and this could happen next year too.

It would appear that since the end of the hot/heatwave we had during the summer, the rainfall deficit issue - at governmental/local authority levels - has become less of a priority.

The rainfall deficit that was there during the hot period remains because rainfall amounts since the end of the heatwave remain below replenishment thresholds.

The state authorities should be trying to encourage water harvesting, due to the continuing rainfall deficits, in my opinion

Supercell · 01-11-2018 2:18pm

Perhaps as summer is now long gone water useage has dropped significantly due to less people watering lawns, gardens etc? (even though they were not supposed to be doing it). Must admit I'm surprised at the lack of continuing coverage on this - every month since April has had below average rainfall here :

https://www.loughlinstown.ie/summary.html

sryanbruen · 16-12-2018 11:29pm

A historical record of selected Irish stations' Summer rainfall totals (mm) from driest to wettest.

*Notes there is missing data in these totals so not reliable.

This is not my final stats on the matter as I have more stations to do including climate ones which have only released June data up to this point so have to wait for July and August to come in.

If you find this hard to read or want the file for yourself, I have attached the excel file.

Data comes from Met Éireann.

Oneiric 3 · 24-12-2018 10:21am

A quick and final look at the rainfall patterns this year. Seems we have now made up for the lack of rainfall during the summer as the last part of the year finishes much wetter than average.

Chart below shows the 28 day running rainfall percentage of average at a national level for the 2018.

Data: Met Éireann

Счастливого Рождества

24-12-2018 6:20pm

After all the swings from floods to drought we reached 102 % of the normal yearly rainfall today in Kilkenny, according to kilkennyweather.com.
It's a bit like an end-of-year balancing statement!

appledrop · 24-12-2018 8:28pm

appledrop wrote: »

Extending the hose pipe ban is a joke. Wait + see we will probably get the wettest Sep or Oct now. In fairness no one needs to use the hose pipes because plenty of rain in gardens now! A 3 month hose ban in a country that gets as much rain over the year as we do is an absolute joke. Yes we know we had the drought for few weeks but rain was above average in Dublin for March + April. There is enough water if they coped on + fixed the leaks + stored it properly.

Surprise surprise as I predicted the rain came! A joke that we had all those restrictions on water in summer. Yes we had a dry period but overall we get plenty of rain in Ireland.
In Europe used to months of no rain + no bans + they get hardly any rain compared to Ireland. We just need to store it better.

Drought/Low Rainfall Watch - Summer 2018

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