Spring 2021 General Discussion

compsys wrote: »

That's you don't get six months of good weather in Ireland?

When has the country ever experienced half a year of warm sunny weather?

Tyrone212 wrote: »

Dublin airport got down to -3 last night. A day too early for May but I reckon that must be close to its record low for May. Currently at freezing now. Baltinglass currently coldest on nra site at -1.3c.

sryanbruen wrote: »

Valentia provisionally has had 231.7 hrs of sunshine this April (to 29th) and is oddly the sunniest place in the country, perhaps indicative of the frequency of northerlies and northeasterlies this month. This makes it the sunniest April at the station since 1938 (apparently had 262 hrs) which was also a rainless month for parts of the country with an infamous drought.

Most places have had their sunniest April since 2015 although Malin Head (though missing some data) had a sunnier April in 2020.

SophieLockhart wrote: »

April was surely the driest April in a long time at a host of stations... Dublin Airport 10.8mm, Dunsany 11.8, even Sherkin Island 13.5. Johnstown had 3.1 until the 28th.

Oneiric 3 wrote: »

And thought I'd try and capture the Mayo mountains from this great distance. Pretty rubbish shot but I think this may be the same range that Goldfinch often captures in his/her far more beautiful shots:

I am humbled by your very kind words Oneiric. I am also most interested to see the Mayo mountains from a different perspective than I normally would see them, so thank you for sharing that picture.

It has been interesting reading the reports from posters around the country over the past week or two and comparing them to the weather that we have experienced near Castlebar during that period. I think that we have had more than decent weather during the past 10 days or so.
Last weekend was fantastic weather wise in these parts and even though it has become noticeably cooler this week, we still have had plenty of blue skies and sunshine. We have had a number of clear, crisp mornings that were then followed by some beautiful Spring evenings with golden sunshine to round off the day.
Over the last couple of days as showers bubbled up around the country, we ended up missing the majority of them as they tended to develop not far from here and then drift off to the south or further inland.
Today was another dry and largely bright day in this area and I have found it a great period to get outside work done.
I suppose on the flip side, we have had a fair amount of night time frosts that have been quite hard on some seedlings and tender plants if not protected. Grass growth is noticeably down this week and I am sure it is a concern to farmers. The ground is very hard and I have noticed a good few local streams and rivers starting to run at quite low levels.
For me though, the evening light has been quite some thing at times this week and even though the temperature fairly drops as the sun dips towards the western horizon, some of the sunsets and late evening skies will leave some nice memories.

The last sunset of April 2021


Nice post sunset colours as seen from the banks of the River Moy this week.


The last golden rays of the setting sun illuminates some tree tops as a faint rainbow seemed to disappear into a gap in the clouds.

Tyrone212 wrote: »

Mad. I see Dublin airport also had 14 air frosts for April which is exceptional for the time of year.

Artane2002 wrote: »

14.1mm here so far today, April had 14.3mm so we're close. March had 30mm so we got almost half the amount that fell that month today alone. Obviously that says more about the dry nature of spring so far rather than today being unusually wet.