Rainfall/Drought Watch 2020

Oneiric 3 · 11-05-2020 4:10pm

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Had 20 mm yesterday in an hour.

Shows the nature of random showers. None of the daily reporting Met Eireann stations (25 in total) picked up on them, except for the odd 0.2mm here and there.

Met reports from the 9th, the day those showers broke out:

giveitholly · 11-05-2020 6:40pm

Yeah I recorded 15 mm in the space of 25 minutes in one of those showers

millb · 12-05-2020 11:37am

silverharp wrote: »

what are reservoir levels like? I assume consumption of water is down?

The MD of Irish Water was on Pat Kenny NT saying domestic consumption was up and IW plant is maxed. Reservoirs were ok, although not ideal for the time of year..

Texters were saying many folks washing cars, roofs and driveways with power-hoses.

MD was worried (re greater Dublin area) as business will soon need loads more water to flush out systems and tanks and clean for resumption of work over next period.

pauldry · 12-05-2020 1:43pm

Irish Water spoke locally of Drought conditions in North Sligo and next 2 weeks look mainly dry too with maybe 10mm of rain

SouthWesterly · 12-05-2020 4:03pm

Oneiric 3 wrote: »

Shows the nature of random showers. None of the daily reporting Met Eireann stations (25 in total) picked up on them, except for the odd 0.2mm here and there.

Met reports from the 9th, the day those showers broke out:

Whats interesting is they friends the far side of the mountain saw the storm and didn't get any of it.

pauldry · 13-05-2020 10:15am

Growth becoming very restricted on mowed lawns here now. Dont cut your grass if you like growth. Long grass appears to be holding more moisture and greenness.

My 10mm prediction for next 2 weeks here that started a day or two ago has yielded 0.5mm so far. Whoopee do. Could 1976 style Summer be in sight?

Cue floods.

Oneiric 3 · 14-05-2020 6:44pm

Models firming up on the chance of some rain now over the weekend, with the N.W generally seeing the greater totals. Running 24hr totals for between now and Monday morning:

Nothing really substantial however, but might just be enough to dampen the ground at little in the most arid regions.

Danzy · 14-05-2020 8:50pm

pauldry wrote: »

Growth becoming very restricted on mowed lawns here now. Dont cut your grass if you like growth. Long grass appears to be holding more moisture and greenness.

My 10mm prediction for next 2 weeks here that started a day or two ago has yielded 0.5mm so far. Whoopee do. Could 1976 style Summer be in sight?

Cue floods.

Grass roots are related to the plant above ground, so 8f you have a foot of grass you'll have a deep and large root ball, if you cut it back to an inch approx, 90% of the root will die back.

Neddyusa · 14-05-2020 11:14pm

Oneiric 3 wrote: »

Models firming up on the chance of some rain now over the weekend, with the N.W generally seeing the greater totals. Running 24hr totals for between now and Monday morning:

Nothing really substantial however, but might just be enough to dampen the ground at little in the most arid regions.

Nothing in those charts showing any sort of relief for parched ground though, only Connemara and Donegal even reaching 10mm.
I've noticed - after we got our measly 1.5mm from the edge of one of those thunderstorms last Saturday - how the ground dried ridiculously fast.
I'm taking puddles on concrete to completely dry ground in minutes. Never seen anything like it in this country. The east wind and low humidity seems to be pretty entrenched now.

Danno · 14-05-2020 11:43pm

Just 24.9mm for April in South Laois, with nearly half of that coming on one day the fifth. Just 0.2mm in May.

Oneiric 3 · 15-05-2020 9:26am

Danzy wrote: »

Grass roots are related to the plant above ground, so 8f you have a foot of grass you'll have a deep and large root ball, if you cut it back to an inch approx, 90% of the root will die back.

Didn't know this, but thanks. Grass growth is stunted a little around these parts but colour is maintained. We just had enough rain over the last few weeks to keep things from dulling down.

Edit, for what it is worth, here is the latest forecast totals out to midnight Sunday. Does seem to be a bit of a scale back, with no real useful amounts at all for more southern (of which parts has had their fair share of rain recently) and eastern parts.

RobertKK · 15-05-2020 1:54pm

If the weather models verify, the weather is looking better than the previous days, as we may get rain next week.
For me, rain is good weather. We badly need it or things will eventually be bad for everyone where rainfall has been way below normal for months now.

SouthWesterly · 15-05-2020 5:40pm

Oneiric 3 wrote: »

Didn't know this, but thanks. Grass growth is stunted a little around these parts but colour is maintained. We just had enough rain over the last few weeks to keep things from dulling down.

Edit, for what it is worth, here is the latest forecast totals out to midnight Sunday. Does seem to be a bit of a scale back, with no real useful amounts at all for more southern (of which parts has had their fair share of rain recently) and eastern parts.

Looks like I'm in line for some rain. Friends a few km away aren't. I'm happy.

Danzy · 15-05-2020 6:40pm

Grass is growing at about a qtr of normal in much of the country.

With the hard wind of the past few weeks sucking moisture out of the ground and keeping things cool well see June be a scorcher and really put the tin hat on it.

pauldry · 16-05-2020 8:48am

A lot of rain between now and the end of the month now showing.

Some relief on the way for farmers but misery for the rest of us. What do I do with the kids now that the 50 day dry spell is over? Previous to that we had a 231 day wet spell.

eon1208 · 16-05-2020 9:02am

Yes. Some soft rain badly needed. However I want to make a bit of golden hay about the 10th June. Would be bliss to get a bit of northern blocking then and a few days of lovely sunshine. Need the rain now and a dry section in June.

Oneiric 3 · 16-05-2020 5:54pm

Some rainfall stats since April 1st and up to yesterday from all of the reporting Met Eireann stations. Note that 3 days of data is missing for Ballyhaise for the end of April period so data for this station on this table is incomplete.

Source of Data:
https://www.met.ie/climate/available-data/daily-data

Oneiric 3 · 17-05-2020 11:05am

0.8mm here since midnight. Floods! Seriously though, even that small amount when combined with the saturated air (which ensures low evaporation rates) is welcome if just for the garden and pots.

Captain Snow · 17-05-2020 7:48pm

Dry weather, Gorse Fire below the Hellfire Club Dublin

Oneiric 3 · 18-05-2020 9:35pm

I mentioned this I think earlier in the thread, but it still bugs me a little.

Here are the daily totals for May so far regarding Casement Aerodrome, as taken from the 'Daily data' page on Met Eireann.

Yet, when one is to refer to their 'monthly data' page, it shows that rainfall totals for this month so far is 3.7mm.

This seems to happen a lot, not just for Casement, but randomly for others stations as well. Does anyone know if there is a different methodology used to obtain these monthly totals as opposed to using the standard sum of daily totals? As there is nothing stated beneath the monthly page to state that there would be.

Danno · 18-05-2020 9:59pm

Oneiric 3 wrote: »

Does anyone know if there is a different methodology used to obtain these monthly totals as opposed to using the standard sum of daily totals? As there is nothing stated beneath the monthly page to state that there would be.

That is an interesting quirk Oneric 3. Looking at your charts, the 1.6mm (or part of it) from May 1st could actually belong to April!

Climate measurements are taken at 9am UTC (10am Summer Time) and any rainwater in the gauge that morning on May 1st gets "thrown back" into April.

However, upon investigation there was no rain between 00hrs and 10hrs on May 1st at Casement - so this discrepancy leaves me baffled!

watlantic · 19-05-2020 1:00am

Collected 4,8 mm during Monday here in SW Mayo. The ground has softened a little bit...
More during the week, esp. Thursday night and Friday, I hope. Never thought I would ever say this during winter, but the garden needs it now.

pauldry · 19-05-2020 10:21am

A mighty good storm on Thursday night Friday. Was going to go to garden centre Thursday but the flowers will be destroyed by this.

I dont think this storm will bring huge rainfall though. Maybe 10mm. Then its drier again for another week with a risk of high pressure especially South and East

SouthWesterly · 19-05-2020 5:32pm

Had 4mm this week in North Kerry

bazermc · 21-05-2020 6:59am

I am dying for a day when is lashes heavy rain all day.

Comhrá · 21-05-2020 9:50am

bazermc wrote: »

I am dying for a day when is lashes heavy rain all day.

Careful what you wish for now - you know how it goes in Ireland when a long dry spell ends.

bazermc · 21-05-2020 9:54am

Comhra wrote: »

Careful what you wish for now - you know how it goes in Ireland when a long dry spell ends.

Lol yes, but I am wishing for it!!

RobertKK · 21-05-2020 9:54am

Comhra wrote: »

Careful what you wish for now - you know how it goes in Ireland when a long dry spell ends.

It gives Ireland back its 40 shades of green.

Harry Palmr · 21-05-2020 10:13am

Did it rain last night?

It looks like this so called storm is going to be a fairly regional affair albeit windy everywhere for a day or so. But the rainfall could be pretty modest in the east/south east.

RobertKK · 21-05-2020 10:44am

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Did it rain last night?

It looks like this so called storm is going to be a fairly regional affair albeit windy everywhere for a day or so. But the rainfall could be pretty modest in the east/south east.

Here in north Kilkenny we had 0.6mm of rain last night.