Drought/Low Rainfall Watch - Summer 2018

Rebelbrowser · 20-07-2018 8:50am

KingdomRushed wrote: »

Overall the breakdown is underway as it has been in very slow motion since the days of unbroken sunshine ended 2 weeks or so ago. This is the second front to cross the country in 5 days, and a little more substantive than the last. More rain due on Tuesday, and by month end the promise of significant rainfall to really break the back of drought even in the south east. I expect a very wet end to summer.

met.ie shows 0mm rain here every day until next Thursday. At 6 days away you cant exactly bank on that rain either. no rain or sign of rain in the south for the foreseeable basically and thats not good when we have had one afternoon of light rain in the last 40 days or so

iamwhoiam · 20-07-2018 9:08am

Raining in SW Dublin . Genuinely can't remember when it last rained ? Was it in beginning of June ?
Have a big event tomorrow week ( sat 28th ) Any signs yet of how it will be then ?

MrDerp · 20-07-2018 9:37am

iamwhoiam wrote: »

Raining in SW Dublin . Genuinely can't remember when it last rained ? Was it in beginning of June ?
Have a big event tomorrow week ( sat 28th ) Any signs yet of how it will be then ?

Make preparations for standard Irish weather:
Sunny spells and scattered showers, some turning heavy at times, with a light to stiff breeze and turning quite warm/cool at times.

Rule of thumb, cater for an indoor event with a mix of warm and cold foods, and consider sitting & eating outside to be a bonus. Buy the booze last, and adjust the red wine : prosecco ratio according the weather forecast at the last minute. :pac:

iamwhoiam · 20-07-2018 9:40am

MrDerp wrote: »

Make preparations for standard Irish weather:
Sunny spells and scattered showers, some turning heavy at times, with a light to stiff breeze and turning quite warm/cool at times.

Rule of thumb, cater for an indoor event with a mix of warm and cold foods, and consider sitting & eating outside to be a bonus. Buy the booze last, and adjust the red wine : prosecco ratio according the weather forecast at the last minute. :pac:

Thank you . Lets hope for a few sunny bits for photos ! The wine will flow either way !!

SleetAndSnow · 20-07-2018 9:45am

No rain in cork city or the majority of cork for that matter yet, getting pretty bad now. My garden is gone all out yellow with the only piece of green being weeds.

LEIN · 20-07-2018 9:48am

The drought has ended here in Greystones.

Mooooo · 20-07-2018 9:51am

Not a drop in cork, even with good amounts of rain it will take a minimum of 2 weeks before grass growth will get back on track

MarkY91 · 20-07-2018 9:52am

iamwhoiam wrote: »

Raining in SW Dublin . Genuinely can't remember when it last rained ? Was it in beginning of June ?
Have a big event tomorrow week ( sat 28th ) Any signs yet of how it will be then ?

It rained a couple of times in the past week. Have you been under a rock?

MJohnston · 20-07-2018 9:56am

LEIN wrote: »

The drought has ended here in Greystones.

The absolute drought ended at the weekend pretty much everywhere.

The long term moisture deficit is in no danger of being ended by this light rain we're getting in the east today.

Call me Al · 20-07-2018 10:00am

LEIN wrote: »

The drought has ended here in Greystones.

Here in South Meath too.. and right on queue, interspersed with the showers, we are being wooed by the once-familiar aroma of slurry spreading.

Normal service may resume :-)

LEIN · 20-07-2018 10:04am

Getting a decent amount too, great for the general environment here.

Oneiric 3 · 20-07-2018 10:06am

Good to see those hard hit regions in the east getting some rain, even if they are small amounts overall. Interestingly, Oak Park recorded more rain (2.2mm) between 8-9am this morning than on any day since May 21st, I.E, two months!

iamwhoiam · 20-07-2018 10:09am

MarkY91 wrote: »

It rained a couple of times in the past week. Have you been under a rock?

It dribbled here twice , not even enough to wet the plants . Wouldn't have classed it as rain at all

sryanbruen · 20-07-2018 10:13am

iamwhoiam wrote: »

It dribbled here twice , not even enough to wet the plants . Wouldn't have classed it as rain at all

Last Sunday was one of the wettest days since the beginning of May in Dublin - not really saying much in the grand scheme of things.

Casement Aerodrome - 0.7mm
Dublin Airport - 3.9mm
Phoenix Park - 2.8mm

Cantona's Collars · 20-07-2018 10:31am

It tried to rain here in Enniscorthy,a few drops and even the dark sky to the North of us is brightening up.
Barely enough to keep the dust down.

iamwhoiam · 20-07-2018 10:35am

sryanbruen wrote: »

Last Sunday was one of the wettest days since the beginning of May in Dublin - not really saying much in the grand scheme of things.

Casement Aerodrome - 0.7mm
Dublin Airport - 3.9mm
Phoenix Park - 2.8mm

Well not in D 24 anyway

MJohnston · 20-07-2018 10:45am

iamwhoiam wrote: »

Well not in D 24 anyway

"one of the wettest days" is a relative term, so even if you only got a few drips, that's still more than there has been in a long time. Casement's 0.7mm is probably accurate enough for D24, considering the proximity.

JCX BXC · 20-07-2018 10:55am

All that was to be had in Dungarvan this morning was a short shower. Place is very very yellow and dead, and I very much doubt that this mornings shower would have dropped anything that did more than wet the top of the grass.

Danno · 20-07-2018 11:00am

Durrow AWS 1.5mm
Ballybrittas AWS 7.0mm

Big difference from one end of Laois to another. Radar looks like it’s over.

Partial drought continues in Durrow.

ZX7R · 20-07-2018 11:11am

Nice drop of rain this morning, sadly did little to relieve the drought conditions in my area of Kildare.
Looking like the east and south won't have much more rain till the end of next week after today.

Cork Boy 53 · 20-07-2018 11:34am

Not a drop of rain here since the moderate fall last Sunday.

SleetAndSnow · 20-07-2018 11:42am

Cork Boy 53 wrote: »

Not a drop of rain here since the moderate fall last Sunday.

You got lucky with that. All we had in the city and by my area in west cork was a light drizzle that added to about 3mm only. Wonder what the record for the driest year in cork is? I’d say we are near it at this point if not surpassed

Cork Boy 53 · 20-07-2018 11:54am

SleetAndSnow wrote: »

You got lucky with that. All we had in the city and by my area in west cork was a light drizzle that added to about 3mm only. Wonder what the record for the driest year in cork is? I’d say we are near it at this point if not surpassed

Most of what fell in my area last Sunday was light drizzly stuff but there were a few bursts of moderate rain. Don't know what the record for driest year in Cork is, sorry.

sryanbruen · 20-07-2018 11:55am

SleetAndSnow wrote: »

You got lucky with that. All we had in the city and by my area in west cork was a light drizzle that added to about 3mm only. Wonder what the record for the driest year in cork is? I’d say we are near it at this point if not surpassed

Do you mean driest Summer?

Driest year on record at Cork Airport was 2010 with an annual total of 904.7mm, just 76% of its average rainfall. Up to 18th July, it has seen 649.1mm and 5 months to go. April 2018 was its second wettest on record.

SleetAndSnow · 20-07-2018 12:35pm

Ah yeah meant summer. Whoops!

LEIN · 20-07-2018 1:24pm

6mm from this mornings rain.

sryanbruen · 20-07-2018 1:24pm

SleetAndSnow wrote: »

Ah yeah meant summer. Whoops!

Up to 19th July, Cork Airport has recorded 15.4mm of rain for Summer 2018. Its driest overall Summer on record is 1995 which had 114.0mm of rain. Here's every Summer's rainfall total that Cork Airport has recorded up to 2017 (including August in the totals) since 1962. Cork Airport needs to record 98.7mm from now to 31st August to surpass Summer 1995's total and not be a record breaker. However, as it stands, Summer 2018 is Cork Airport's driest Summer on record which is kind of surprising to see given the overall trend of Summer rainfall of the 21st century so far at the station.

Data comes from Met Éireann.

SleetAndSnow · 20-07-2018 1:37pm

Amazing thanks sryan! Really enjoying all the detail you provide and how you answer questions, really great!

MJohnston · 20-07-2018 2:31pm

sryanbruen wrote: »

Up to 19th July, Cork Airport has recorded 15.4mm of rain for Summer 2018. Its driest overall Summer on record is 1995 which had 114.0mm of rain. Here's every Summer's rainfall total that Cork Airport has recorded up to 2017 (including August in the totals) since 1962. Cork Airport needs to record 98.7mm from now to 31st August to surpass Summer 1995's total and not be a record breaker. However, as it stands, Summer 2018 is Cork Airport's driest Summer on record which is kind of surprising to see given the overall trend of Summer rainfall of the 21st century so far at the station.

Data comes from Met Éireann.

Would you happen to know what the average rainfall for that same period usually is?

sryanbruen · 20-07-2018 3:10pm

MJohnston wrote: »

Would you happen to know what the average rainfall for that same period usually is?

These are Cork Airport's Summer rainfall total averages - if you mean the whole of the Summer. The first average is an overall station average based on its Summers it has recorded whilst the next two are the 30 year averages, the latter obviously being the one Met Éireann uses in their monthly summaries for % of average. No matter which of the below averages to use,

1962-2017 average: 245.7mm
1971-2000 average: 229.0mm
1981-2010 average: 257.5mm

Just for fun sakes, here's averages specifically for the 1st June to 19th July period at Cork Airport:

1962-2017 average: 125.3mm
1971-2000 average: 109.4mm
1981-2010 average: 132.1mm

Last but not least, some fun facts on the 1st June to 19th July period history in terms of rainfall at Cork Airport. The wettest was 2012 with 310.9mm which had completely smashed the previous record of 237.8mm in 2007. The driest was 2006 with 43.3mm and this was also the last time when the period in question had a rainfall total below 100mm so 2018 is highly unusual. 2018 has smashed 2006's record of 43.3mm now with 15.4mm for the period.

Data comes from Met Éireann.

MJohnston · 20-07-2018 3:48pm

sryanbruen wrote: »

These are Cork Airport's Summer rainfall total averages - if you mean the whole of the Summer. The first average is an overall station average based on its Summers it has recorded whilst the next two are the 30 year averages, the latter obviously being the one Met Éireann uses in their monthly summaries for % of average. No matter which of the below averages to use,

1962-2017 average: 245.7mm
1971-2000 average: 229.0mm
1981-2010 average: 257.5mm

Just for fun sakes, here's averages specifically for the 1st June to 19th July period at Cork Airport:

1962-2017 average: 125.3mm
1971-2000 average: 109.4mm
1981-2010 average: 132.1mm

Last but not least, some fun facts on the 1st June to 19th July period history in terms of rainfall at Cork Airport. The wettest was 2012 with 310.9mm which had completely smashed the previous record of 237.8mm in 2007. The driest was 2006 with 43.3mm and this was also the last time when the period in question had a rainfall total below 100mm so 2018 is highly unusual. 2018 has smashed 2006's record of 43.3mm now with 15.4mm for the period.

Data comes from Met Éireann.

I was actually thinking of the inverse of your figures, ie. what's the average amount of rainfall between 20th July and 31st August.

In other words, if Cork needs to record 98.7mm for the rest of the summer, would that be an above average amount of rainfall for that period?

MJohnston · 20-07-2018 3:51pm

I've just realised though that I can subtract the 1st June-19th July figures from the whole summer figures to get what I'm looking for. It looks like it'd be around 120mm in all 3 cases. So with an average amount of rainfall for the remainder of the summer, Cork Airport would not be the driest summer at that station.

sryanbruen · 20-07-2018 3:51pm

MJohnston wrote: »

I was actually thinking of the inverse of your figures, ie. what's the average amount of rainfall between 20th July and 31st August.

In other words, if Cork needs to record 98.7mm for the rest of the summer, would that be an above average amount of rainfall for that period?

Ah, I'll work on averages for that period then.

sryanbruen · 20-07-2018 4:33pm

MJohnston wrote: »

I've just realised though that I can subtract the 1st June-19th July figures from the whole summer figures to get what I'm looking for. It looks like it'd be around 120mm in all 3 cases. So with an average amount of rainfall for the remainder of the summer, Cork Airport would not be the driest summer at that station.

Ok so here they are for 20th July to 31st August:

1962-2017 average: 120.4mm
1971-2000 average: 119.6mm
1981-2010 average: 125.4mm

Driest such period was 1976 with 15.1mm whilst the wettest was 1986 with 276.9mm.

Data comes from Met Éireann.

Sleeper12 · 20-07-2018 4:47pm

Dublin 5 got its first real rainfall this morning since early June. Maybe even the end of May. I'll have to cut the grass in a few days due to the rain!

hinault · 20-07-2018 5:02pm

Sleeper12 wrote: »

Dublin 5 got its first real rainfall this morning since early June. Maybe even the end of May. I'll have to cut the grass in a few days due to the rain!

It started raining in Dublin 6/12 at about 02.00hrs and it was raining on and off to 07.00 hrs. I'm told that it stopped raining completely at about 13.00 hrs.

We needed that bout of rain. I just hope that out in the Dublin/Wicklow mountains that they got some of that same rainfall too. At this stage every single raindrop counts.

Sleeper12 · 20-07-2018 6:07pm

hinault wrote:

We needed that bout of rain. I just hope that out in the Dublin/Wicklow mountains that they got some of that same rainfall too. At this stage every single raindrop counts.

All of the rain from the roof of my house comes down two downpipes at the back of my house. They run into the rainwater sewer and out to sea. Two weeks ago I covered both drains with plastic bags so water would run onto my back garden. It wasn't so much to water the grass but rather to put as much water into the water table as possible. On the grand scheme of things it won't make much difference to dublins water supply but I feel better about it.

As you say every drop counts

Cantona's Collars · 20-07-2018 6:21pm

A ten minute shower here, it's actually warm to the touch. Very humid and sticky outside. That bit of rain will do nothing to alleviate the drought conditions here in Wexford.

Mobhi1 · 20-07-2018 7:30pm

We have two water butts taking the rain off the roof and they are both overflowing now, after both having been empty, after last Sunday's and this morning's rain

MJohnston · 20-07-2018 7:41pm

Remarkable how many dark grey clouds have passed over D7 this evening without a drop of rain. I can think of many summers when the inverse would be true.

Ronan|Raven · 20-07-2018 8:22pm

A beautiful day of rain in Bray. So badly needed. The first prolonged rain in many a week.

LEIN · 20-07-2018 8:32pm

Up to 8mm here now. Be interesting to see the grass bounce back.

Gaoth Laidir · 20-07-2018 8:59pm

Latest grass-growth figures by county (kg dry matter per hectare per day). Dublin practically stagnant.

National average is well below the past two years.

https://twitter.com/PastureBase/status/1019554518399320064

mickger844posts · 20-07-2018 9:23pm

A miserly 0.3mm here in Waterford City after a brief shower this morning.

www.waterfordweather.com

Franz Von Peppercorn · 20-07-2018 11:02pm

Anyone know the totals for the Wicklow mountains today, or is that measured.

Sleeper12 · 20-07-2018 11:16pm

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote:

Anyone know the totals for the Wicklow mountains today, or is that measured.

The all important area as far as Dublin is concerned

Danno · 20-07-2018 11:42pm

Very interesting how localised today's rainfall was in my district. Driving to Portlaoise this morning, mist and drizzle at home in Durrow, a tad heavier towards Abbeyleix and a deluge from there into Portlaoise. (mind you, it was the fine, small drops/heavy drizzle stuff). The rain stopped around 11am in Portlaoise but quickly resumed after lunch - there was even some sunshine in between and the sultriness in the air was unreal!
Going back to Durrow this evening and it was the exact reverse, loughs of water on the N77 south as far as around 2 miles north of Abbeyleix then like someone drew a line in the road, back into pretty much dryness.
Back home in Durrow, a mist shower gave 1mm in the AWS (following the 1.3mm manual gauge of last night) around 3.30pm, but this had mostly evaporated again.
Went to a local hurling match this evening, and despite the air temps of 18.1c it felt cold. There was a light NW breeze but you could feel the damp clinging into your clothes. RH was 83% at the time.
Anyways, it was an unusual day, probably moreso following the very dryness of the last six to eight weeks. It felt like the Atlantic airmass had finally returned.

Danno · 20-07-2018 11:44pm

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Anyone know the totals for the Wicklow mountains today, or is that measured.

The higher altitude gauges usually are only measured once a month IIRC.

MJohnston · 20-07-2018 11:58pm

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Anyone know the totals for the Wicklow mountains today, or is that measured.

You'd imagine IW have access to water levels at all the reservoirs up there, but sadly there's no official weather station.

Graces7 · 21-07-2018 6:56am

All good news to wake to. Just Cork and nearby now....

Drought/Low Rainfall Watch - Summer 2018

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