Irish Weather Statistics

mickmackey1 wrote: »

I thought the hourly record was 52mm? - https://www.met.ie/climate/weather-extreme-records

It's confusing alright, MÉ's own PDF on the 11 June 1963 thunderstorms state the following which would mean 82.6mm of rain though it says at least 3 inches fell within the hour.

Maybe it's not official, I don't know.

Perhaps something to ask them unless somebody else here knows, good spotting.

The agrometeorological bulletin for January 1979 says the lowest grass minimum that month was -24.6c at Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo on the 1st and also -20.5c at Dunsany, Co. Meath on the 2nd but the Met Éireann records pages on their old and new site say the lowest grass minimum on record in Ireland was -19.6c at Glasnevin on 12th January 1982? Both of the values above are lower than this so only leads to confusion.

http://edepositireland.ie/bitstream/handle/2262/71014/Agromet%20Bull%207901.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Not to mention, Philip Eden's Weatherwise book says that Phoenix Park recorded 33.4c on 16 July 1876? I have never seen this figure before. It also is 0.1c higher than the 33.3c record for Kilkenny Castle in June 1887. The below chart is the 500mb height synoptic for 16 July 1876. Looks very warm and dry but 33.4c? That's hard to believe.

Climatological note no. 1 on Ireland's extreme temperature records (up to December 1971) says that Mullingar recorded 29.8c on 29 June 1949 but Met Éireann's table of highest June temperatures per decade since the 1940s (on their preliminary report for Summer 2018 heatwave) says that the highest June temperature of the 1940s was 27.7c at Shannon Airport on 23 June 1949. The monthly maximum temperature records for Irish stations that was released in October 2010 also states the 29.8c June 1949 temperature as a record high for Mullingar.

Maybe it was just a small mistake.

http://edepositireland.ie/bitstream/handle/2262/70477/Climatological%20Note%20No.%201.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

http://archive.met.ie/climate-ireland/extreme_maxtemps.pdf

https://twitter.com/kilkennyweather/status/1023185786601177090

Charles Babbage wrote: »

How does Glasnevin have a grass minima of -19.6°C on 12th January 1982 and there is nothing close to this in the chart at Dublin airport which is only about 6Km away?
Might there not be local heating effects at the airport in recent years with so much traffic?

That's one thing I was wondering that I forgot to mention whilst creating that graph. Here is the three main Dublin stations' daily grass minimum temperatures for January 1982 along with Glasnevin's ones. It seems Glasnevin is out on its own for its extremely low grass minimum as Phoenix Park's lowest was -15.5c and Casement Aerodrome's lowest was -13.9c. Dublin Airport's exact figure was -10.1c for interest. Merrion Square (another Dublin station) had its lowest grass minimum at just -8.5c.



In relation to the above from January 1979, I wonder why they would allow to share faulty figures on their bulletin?

Lots of stats today....

Data comes from Met Éireann.

Nearly 10 years ago, on 31 July 2008, a stationary band of heavy rain moved across Munster during the evening bringing more than 40mm at several stations. Stations south of the Shannon Estuary had totals exceeding 60mm. Limerick was among the worst areas affected by the heavy rainfall. Castlemahon in the county had a 24-hour daily rainfall of 90.1mm measured at 09:00 UTC on August 1st (see other Limerick stations' rainfall totals in the table below). This accounts for about 10% of the station's normal rainfall for an entire year. The large majority of this rain fell within 7 hours including an estimate of 84.7mm during the period. Such exceptional rainfall in a period like 7 hours has a return period exceeding at least 250 years. Rain from preceding days led soils to be close to saturation and consequently, there was no capacity in the soil to absorb excessive amounts of rainfall. As a result of this unprecedented rainfall, the River Arra in Newcastle West overflowed its banks leaving many houses and businesses severely flooded.

Station|Rainfall total (mm)
Newcastle West|84.9
Ballyhahill|71.0
Springfield|63.9
Athea|63.3
Patrichswell|48.4
Adare|43.0














Data comes from Met Éireann.

Summary #2 of my project is complete, it's on January 1979. You can see the PDF attached.

Winter 1978-79 as I said previously is very forgotten for some reason in Ireland, you never heard it mentioned even though it had snow depths on par with 2010 and the depth of cold on January 2nd 1979 was the coldest of the 20th century for most parts.

July 2018's final CET came in at 19.1c. This makes it the third hottest July on record since 1659 for the CET and the fourth hottest month on record overall. Here's the top 10 hottest months on record for the CET including July 2018.

Rank|CET|Month
1.| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

Data comes from the UK Met Office.

Looks like 1976 will remain the daddy of Summers for the UK whilst 1995 remains for Ireland. Ah well, maybe in another 42 years or 23 years.

The end of January 2002 produced some stormy weather over Ireland and this was to continue (get much worse) into February. On the 1st day of the month, a vigorous depression pushed in from the Atlantic Ocean with a central pressure of 930mb just to the northwest of Ireland. Bands of heavy rain were associated with this depression coupled with southwesterly gale force winds. All of this coincided with very high tides especially in the Irish Sea where Dublin was the worst affected region. A tide of approximately a half metre higher than the previously recorded highest tide (which was in 1924) entered Dublin port and proceeded to overtop or breach sea defenses protecting Dublin Ports East Wall and North Wall, and Dublin City's Ringsend areas.

You can see why the depression was so deep as it was carried in by a powerful jet stream with speeds surpassing 230 km/h.





This was East Wall, Co. Dublin in February 2002:



Parts of Dublin in February 2002:







Cork in February 2002:



http://www.storm-surge.info/dublin-floods-2002
http://www.dublincity.ie/sites/default/files/content/WaterWasteEnvironment/waterprojects/Documents/City_Council_Flood_presentation_September_09_T.Leahy.pdf
https://www.independent.ie/regionals/droghedaindependent/news/town-escaped-disastrous-flood-in-2002-27100995.html

A randomly chosen event for today. We're coming up to the 10th anniversary of another event this Thursday.

Data comes from Met Éireann.

Thanks to Donegal Storm giving me an excel file of many Irish stations' every 25.0c+ day since their records began. It has allowed me further to compile my list that I made ages ago of the highest absolute maximum temperature in Ireland for every year as far back as possible. Using this file, I have been able to go back to 1961. I cannot guarantee that these are the highest of some of the years but they're the highest out of the file. If any higher maximums are found, it will be updated. I have also updated some of the years that I had previously on the list because I discovered higher maximum temperatures than what MÉ's weather bulletins have showed in that file.

Been busy doing this and also updating the Irish heatwaves excel file with more stations.

2018: 32.0°C at Shannon Airport on June 28th
2017: 28.4°C at Phoenix Park on June 21st
2016: 30.4°C at Mount Dillon on July 19th
2015: 26.1°C at Dublin (Glasnevin) on June 30th
2014: 28.8°C at Durrow on July 25th
2013: 31.0°C at Dooks on July 19th
2012: 28.3°C at Ardfert (Liscahane) on May 25th
2011: 26.0°C at Cavan (Drumconnick) & Athy (Chanterlands) on June 3rd
2010: 27.1°C at Elphin on May 22nd and Ardee (Boharnamoe) on May 23rd
2009: 28.6°C at Galway (University College) on June 2nd
2008: 25.9°C at Ardtamon on July 27th and Cork (Clover Hill) on July 28th
2007: 27.0°C at Dooks on June 9th and Cavan (Drumconnick) on June 11th
2006: 32.3°C at Elphin on July 19th
2005: 30.3°C at Kildalton on July 12th
2004: 27.3°C at Birr on August 1st
2003: 30.4°C at Boora on August 8th
2002: 26.5°C at Cavan (Drumconnick) on August 5th
2001: 28.4°C at Ardee (Boharnamoe) on July 28th
2000: 28.5°C at Cavan (Drumconnick) on June 18th
1999: 28.0°C at Warrenstown and Athy (Chanterlands) on July 9th
1998: 26.7°C at Cork (Clover Hill) on August 8th
1997: 28.4°C at Ardfert on May 31st
1996: 27.0°C at Ardfert (Liscahane) and Shannon Airport on June 16th, Kilfinnane Education Centre and Killarney (Muckross Hse.) on June 17th
1995: 30.8°C at Kilkenny on August 2nd
1994: 26.8°C at Portlaoise (Coolnamona) on August 1st
1993: 28.6°C at Cork (Clover Hill) on June 27th
1992: 27.3°C at Cork (Clover Hill) on June 27th
1991: 28.4°C at Cahirciveen on September 5th
1990: 31.0°C at Dublin (Glasnevin) on August 2nd
1989: 30.5°C at Lanesboro (Doire Dharog) on July 19th
1988: 26.0°C at Dungarvan (Carriglea) on June 23rd
1987: 29.0°C at Waterford Airport on July 5th
1986: 27.0°C at Clonsast (Bord na Móna) on June 27th
1985: 25.1°C at Dublin (Merrion Square) on July 2nd & September 30th
1984: 27.9°C at Cork (Clover Hill) on July 27th
1983: 32.2°C at Carlow (Oak Park) on July 14th
1982: 27.0°C at Glencolumbkille (Drimroe) on June 4th
1981: 26.2°C at Cork (Clover Hill) on August 25th
1980: 26.5°C at Enniscorthy (Voc. Sch.) on August 20th
1979: 25.8°C at Enniscorthy (Voc. Sch.) on July 16th & 17th, Ballybrittas on July 27th and Dublin (Glasnevin) on July 28th
1978: 26.5°C at Boora on May 31st
1977: 28.7°C at Ballybrittas on July 7th
1976: 32.5°C at Boora on June 29th
1975: 31.5°C at Ballybrittas on August 3rd
1974: 28.0°C at Thurles (Sugar Factory) on August 25th
1973: 28.7°C at Boora on August 15th
1972: 28.7°C at Killarney (St. Finans Hosp.) on July 19th
1971: 26.9°C at Enniscorthy (Voc. Sch.) on July 8th
1970: 27.9°C at Warrenstown on June 10th
1969: 29.6°C at Fermoy (Moore Park) on July 15th
1968: 26.6°C at Tuam (Airglooney) on June 12th
1967: 26.4°C at Ballybrittas on June 17th
1966: 26.2°C at Ballincurra on July 22nd
1965: 25.2°C at Ballybrittas on June 29th
1964: 26.0°C at Ballybrittas on August 3rd
1963: 26.8°C at Dublin (Rathfarnham Castle) on July 30th
1962: 25.0°C at Clonsast (Bord na Móna) on June 8th
1961: 28.4°C at Gurteen (Agr. Coll.) on September 1st

Data comes from Met Éireann.

Irish heatwaves excel file updated with more stations attached.

You can also view this as a table here: https://bruener45.wixsite.com/britishislesclimate/irish-heatwaves