Irish Weather Statistics

nacho libre wrote: »

Air Maximum.

For the UK, it's 5.1c at Nunraw Abbey in East Lothian, Scotland on 2nd June 1975.

I think many people were pretty fond of May 2017? Right? No surprise why. It was the sunniest May for the majority of places since May 2000. It was also the warmest May since 2008. The month consisted of two notable spells, the anticyclonic and very sunny easterly of the first two weeks and the southerly near the end of the month which brought the highest May temperatures in Ireland since 2012.

After a rather wet end on April 30th to what was one of the driest Aprils on record, a block of high pressure built to the north of Europe ridging in across Ireland. This forced the winds to become an easterly. This easterly would start off fairly cool - and stay cool for some eastern regions because they were in the shadow of the breeze. Usually in these setups in Spring and early Summer, they tend to be cool and drag in a lot of cloud especially if the sea surface temperatures are below average and it was for the east and southeast of the UK. We just happened to be very lucky and the majority of parts had plenty of sunshine for the period May 1st-11th 2017 with Belmullet recording 145.5 hours of sunshine during this period. Its entire May average is around 189 hours so it already had 77% of its average May sunshine by the first 11 days of the month. The station overall had 266.7 hours of sunshine for the month, one of its sunniest Mays on record. Not to mention, May is the sunniest month on average during the year so that was incredible! The first 10 days on average for Ireland's synoptic stations recorded 104 hours of sunshine! The station did not fail to reach 10 hours of sunshine during any of those days, even the 6th which was notably dull for much of the country because of an area of low pressure which tried to invade from the south but failed to on the 7th and instead, temperatures just rose as the sun shone heavily. As the wind became a northeasterly for a time, frosts developed in the east from the 8th-10th with temperatures getting below freezing overnight. Newport, Co. Mayo had a maximum of 22.5c on May 7th and Claremorris, Co. Mayo had 21.0c on the same day.











This was the scene on Cruagh Mountain on 8th May 2017. Photo courtesy of Rougies.



The nice spell ended on the evening of the 11th as low pressure successfully made its way northwards. The air was unstable and humid giving away to heavy rain and downpours in parts. The winds became long fetched southwesterlies dragging in mild and more unstable air. This led to further downpours on the 15th/16th. The weather remained changeable that week but overall warm.





By the 23rd, high pressure started to approach from the south sending the lows northwards and dragging up some very warm air. Initially, this was quite a cloudy high so did not bring a lot of sunshine with it but for some parts, it brought some localised sunny spells.



The high moved to the east of the UK dragging in a southeasterly airflow. This brought temperatures up to 25c on the 25th and 26th May for Ireland. Mt Dillon, Co. Roscommon got up to 26.1c on the 26th, the highest for May since 2012. Meanwhile, in the UK, temperatures got up to 29.4c on the 26th, the highest for May since 2005. Sunshine was quite varied. For most, the 25th was very sunny but the 26th, the sun tended to be more hazy besides parts of the north and east. This came to an abrupt ending on the 27th when a trough from the Bay of Biscay pushed up and gave heavy rainfalls to parts especially Dublin. Casement Aerodrome had a daily rainfall of 38.0mm on this day. The end of May was fairly changeable with some showers but also sunny spells and still remaining rather warm - it was to become unseasonably stormy at the start of June though.





Data comes from Met Éireann or the UK Met Office.

Met Éireann for 17 May 2002:

Rainfall on the 17th, the day of the general election, brought the highest daily falls on record for May at several stations in the east and north (see table below). A thundery trough associated with a depression to the southwest of Ireland moved into west Munster late on the 16th. Early on the 17th, this band of
thunderstorms lay over Leinster and west Ulster; by midday this had merged with another pulse of very heavy rain moving northwards over the eastern half of the country. Falls of over 25mm for the day were recorded over a wide area of the east, north and northwest, with over 50mm measured in parts of north Leinster and the northwest. In contrast, many stations in parts of Cork and Kerry recorded less than 1mm, with over 7 hours sunshine measured at Valentia Observatory.

County|Station|Amount (mm)|Records since
Cavan|Bailieboro|49.3|1973
|Lough Gowna|49.0|1973
Dublin|Dublin Airport|49.6|1939
|Kinsealy|47.5|1961
|Skerries|51.0|1907
Leitrim|Ballinamore|59.3|1963
Meath|Navan|47.2|1944
|Kingscourt|50.0|1981
|Warrenstown|35.4|1951

Artane2002 wrote: »

May 2002 sounds worse than 2015 to me. Thanks for your brief summaries of each of those months!

May 2002 was warmer than 2015. May 2002 was more locally wet than widespread with the east being particularly affected. May 2015 was more widely wet along with being very cool. Only one day was above 20c. 2002 had around 2-3 days of such.

I'm too young to remember 2002 but May 2015 was absolutely dire! I hated it so much.

EDIT: I just noticed that I have reached 5,000 posts in the Weather forum.

The first few days of June 2009 were very sunny and warm bringing the warmest June weather in Ireland since 2006. The UK Met Office had predicted a BBQ Summer for 2009 so after a very warm end to May and start to June, they weren't far off so far up to that period. This included a daily maximum of 28.6c at NUIG on June 2nd. However, it was about to go down as a northerly to a northeasterly airflow took off on the 5th and into the 6th. Low pressure took place over the east of Ireland which led to the wettest June day in Dublin since 1993. Casement Aerodrome recorded 41.2mm on this day whilst Phoenix Park had 37.9mm.

At the same time of this heavy rain, temperatures plunged. Phoenix Park's maximum temperature for the 6th June 2009 was 9.4c, its lowest on record and the station's records go all the way back to the 1850s.

Some parts of the north of the UK had localised snow on the 5th/6th June 2009 to add, some of the latest snow here since June 1975.

Look at the changes in pattern between the 2nd and 6th June 2009.

UK's highest air minimum temperatures for each month:

Month|Record|Date|Location
Jan|13.1|25 Jan 2016|Magilligan
Feb|13.7|13 Feb 1998|Aboyne
Mar|14.2|18 Mar 1990|Arthog
Apr|15.2|15 Apr 2007 / 23 Apr 2011|Inverailort / Eastbourne
May|18.9|31 May 1947|Folkestone
Jun|22.7|28 Jun 1976|Ventnor Park
Jul|23.3|29 Jul 1948|St James' Park
Aug|23.9|3 Aug 1990|Brighton
Sep|21.7|5 Sep 1949|St James' Park
Oct|19.4|1 Oct 1985|Aber
Nov|15.9|3 Nov 2005|Eastbourne
Dec|15.0|12 Dec 1994|Hawarden Airport


Data comes from the UK Met Office.

The Irish record for January is 12.6c at Phoenix Park on 24 January 2016, that much I know.

Edit: thanks Donegal Storm for that. Wasn’t aware of that recording. Must add it to the January temperature records table.

Actually I correct myself, 13.0c was the minimum at Glasnevin on 10th January 1998.

I noticed this whilst I was redoing my January daily temperature records table.

One of the more forgotten heatwaves in Ireland was that of July 1972. This was within a time of poor to average Summers all around from 1971 to 1974 (1970 wasn't anything special either in spite of a very warm and sunny June). Why is this a forgotten heatwave? Well, 30c was not recorded during the period and it was quite a strange heatwave compared to the ones we all know from like 2013, 2006, 1995 etc. The provisional IMT for July 1972 was only 14.7c which comes to -0.7c below the 1981-2010 average - in spite of the heatwave. Not to mention, it was preceded by the coldest June of the 20th century. Two synoptic stations, Kilkenny and Shannon Airport, had official heatwave conditions during the middle of the month. The 12th July 1972 was the first day of 1972 in the UK to record a maximum of at least 21c (70F), so you can see that July also had a notably cool opening to it. The UK also did not record 30c, the highest seen here was 29.4c on the 20th July and this was the highest temperature all year. Very strange spell of weather!

If you don't know what the Irish definition to a heatwave is, this is what Met Éireann says about it:

A heatwave refers to a prolonged period of hot weather, which may be accompanied by high humidity. While there is no generally accepted definition of a heatwave, in Ireland it’s classified as five consecutive days with a maximum temperature in excess of 25°C.

Here's the synoptic for 16 July 1972 and as you can see high pressure is right over top of us drawing in lovely warm, clear air from the south. Going by the IMT, you would have never thought there was such a nice spell of weather.





Here's the maximum temperatures for the period 14-28 July 1972 for both Kilkenny and Shannon Airport as these stations had the heatwave conditions going by the definition.

Station|Fri 14|Sat 15|Sun 16|Mon 17|Tue 18|Wed 19|Thu 20|Fri 21|Sat 22|Sun 23|Mon 24|Tue 25|Wed 26|Thu 27|Fri 28
Kilkenny|22.2|25.2|25.2|25.4|25.6|26.0|25.7|17.7|21.7|20.7|21.4|20.5|22.9|23.1|21.6
Shannon Airport|21.8|25.2|26.4|26.7|26.9|26.7|24.2|17.6|19.8|18.0|19.5|20.4|24.1|24.3|18.4


Data comes from Met Éireann.

This is what Professor Trevor Harley says from a UK perspective on the month:

July. Many parts of the country had to wait until the 12th for the first day of the year over 21C (70F). It was sunny and warm in the middle of the month, but then there were some notable thunderstorms. On the 19th, lightning killed cattle at Romney Marsh. There were landslides around Exeter on the 19th, following 91 mm of rain, 89 mm of it in two hours early in the morning. Lightning strikes caused widespread power outages. On the 23rd, hail was large enough (reported as 27 mm in diameter) to break windows in the Nottingham area; 31 mm of rain fell in half an hour at Newark; and traffic was brought to a halt on the M6 in Staffs, as 44 mm of rain fell in 20 minutes at Farley (Staffs.). There were more thunderstorms begain on 31st July. 50 mm of rain in a couple of hours near Chingford. Lightning damage and injuries across the country. Flooding aroud Manchester. The hottest day of the year was in Perth: 29.4C on the 20th.

June 2014 was a largely anticyclonic, warm and sunny month with a notable dry spell during the middle period from the 11th to the 24th. During this period, particularly in the second half, it became very sunny for parts. Valentia Observatory had a monthly sunshine total of 266 hours of sunshine which made it the sunniest June at the station since 1940 and its second sunniest on record. This was 164% of its average June sunshine with an average of 8.76 hours of sunshine per day. You can see Valentia Observatory's June 2014 daily sunshine totals in the graph below. Note the number of days with at least 10 hours of sun here. Normally, this station is one of the dullest stations and is the wettest in Ireland but in fact, it was the sunniest out of the whole country in June 2014. This was as strange as the station holding the all-time Irish monthly sunshine total record in July 1955.



The 17th/18th June 2014 were very warm for places bringing the warmest June temperatures since 2009. An area of high pressure of up to 1034hPa was centred to the northwest bringing in a north to northeast flow which brought cloud to much of the UK whilst Ireland was on the edge of the cloud. However, tropical continental air attempted to come from the southeast and this brought the warmest conditions of the year so far up to that point, soon to be beaten in July. Craggaunowen, Co Clare had an air maximum of 27.6c on the 17th with 27.1c at Newport, Co. Mayo on the same day. The UK's maximum was 27.0c at Cupar on the 18th so Ireland had a higher maximum than the UK this month. Not surprisingly, both of these days were the sunniest of the month at the majority of the stations including a daily sunshine total recording of 15.8 hours at Belmullet on the 17th which was the station's sunniest June day since 1995 and for Ireland since 2010. This was not a heatwave as the criteria was not reached - 5 consecutive days of maximum temperatures of at least 25c or above, but no doubt the newspapers were trending with the word heatwave during this warm spell. Of course, these days were during the Leaving Cert examinations which ended on 20th June that year so some students didn't fully get to enjoy the marvellous weather. Fortunately, the rest of June and parts of July were to deliver further fantastic weather.

Here are maps (by Met Éireann) showing maximum temperature recordings at Irish stations on both days. I know some of them can be hard to make out.





I went to the beach on June 18th 2014 soaking up the sun and it was the last time for me to do so because we've been lacking days of blue skies and high temperatures since here in Ireland. Summer 2016 had several instances of high temperatures but not much blue skies whilst June 2017 had a spell from the 17th-20th that had both for here and I could have went but I just didn't. I do not know why. If we do get a nice spell like this one in June 2014 this Summer, I must make the most of it. At the end of June 2014 into July, I was one of the specially chosen people in my youth club to partake in an event called Integration Week. In this event, there would be specially chosen teens from several youth clubs who would all meetup at different places like St Monica's Youth Centre, Irishtown Stadium, Donnycarney Youth Centre and the ALSAA Complex. We would do all sorts of sports and end the week with a visit to Zipit Forest Adventures, Tibradden Woods. The weather was perfect for the week. On 30th June, it was blue skies and 22c. On 1st July, it was blue skies again with 24c. 2nd July started off very sunny and clouds gradually increased but stayed mostly sunny and 22c. 3rd July had sunny spells and showers but still warm at 21c. What a great week that was complimented by the weather! I loved Summer 2014 even if August was poor and personally prefer it over Summer 2013. Anyway, I just wanted to give some of my own recollection here on experiencing the great weather of the period.

The IMT for June 2014 was 14.6c which was +0.9c above the 1981-2010 average whilst the CET was 15.1c which was +1.0c above the 1961-90 average.

UKMO fax chart reanalysis for 17 June 2014.



Professor Trevor Harley's description for June 2014:

June Quite warm and dry, and the sunniest since 2010. The highest temperature was 26.5C at Strathallan (Perthshire) on the 18th; the coldest 1.0C at Laka Bala early on the 6th. Total rain was 50.1 mm (75% average). The highest rainfall of the month was the 28th, when 57.0 mm fell at Boughton-under-Blean in Kent in a five-hour thunderstorm. It was wetter than average in parts of east Scotland, and wetter in the SW. England and Wales sunshine was 227 hours (117 hours). Lerwick only saw 68 hours (lower than in March, April, or May).

*The Lerwick sunshine total was its lowest for June on record.

"Ireland's heatwave rivals Rio and surpasses Med temperatures"

https://www.independent.ie/weather/irelands-heatwave-rivals-rio-and-surpasses-med-temperatures-30362191.html

Photos from June 2014, some are of the UK, some are of Ireland.





Courtesy of Kieran Commins, rows of ‘Cailleach dhearg’ or the common poppy covered a small nature park near Nurney, Co Kildare in late June. Poppies, a wildflower which bloom between June and September are known as the international symbol of respect for those who lost their lives during both World Wars. The association stems from the growth of poppies in-between the trenches and No Man’s Land on the Western Front during World War One.







Sources

http://www.met.ie/climate/MonthlyWeather/clim-2014-Jun.pdf
http://www.met.ie/UserMediaUpl/file/June_14_lowres.pdf
http://www.trevorharley.com/weather_web_pages/2014_weather.htm
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/summaries/2014/june

I mentioned yesterday being the most impressive April storm or windy spell since Easter Monday 2010 (5th April).

What happened this day was that an area of low pressure centred to the northwest of Ireland with a minimum pressure of around 967hPa on the midnight of the 6th. Winds associated with it were of a strong southwesterly direction bringing the windiest April conditions since 2004 at this time. Belmullet reached a maximum wind gust of 75 knots (86 mph OR 139 km/hr) at 13:53 on the 5th April 2010. Unusually, this was the highest wind gust of the entire year of 2010, even the 11 November windy spell (which was my 10th birthday ) did not beat it. Other places had maximum wind gusts generally in the 40-50 knot range on this day. 2010 was the calmest year on record for parts with record breaking low mean wind speeds between 6 and 10 knots - another reason why I adore 2010!

It wasn't just about the wind as there was heavy rainfall associated with this low pressure with falls of more than 20mm on both the 5th and 6th in localised places. Valentia Observatory had 26.6mm of rain on the 5th whilst Ballyhaise had 27.2mm of rain on the 6th.



This storm was important for building up a long dry and sunny spell for us though during April 2010. By the 8th, high pressure approached from the south of around 1035hPa which stuck around us all the way to the 23rd with little to no parts having any rainfall at all throughout this period. Daytime temperatures were between low to mid teens mostly but getting up to 20c on the 10th and 11th in completely blue skies. Fantastic Spring weather! I'll remind here that April 2010 holds the Irish station monthly sunshine total record with Sherkin Island having 247.7 hours of sun during this month, 140% of its average April sunshine with an average of 8.26 hours of sun per day!

Remember this (for those that don't know obviously) as a lesson to learn, a storm could be a good sign for dry weather as shown in months such as April 2010, September 2014 and now April 2018 (at least for some days).



Data comes from Met Éireann.

According to P.K. Rohan's book from 1986 'Climate of Ireland', Coolgreany of Co. Antrim was completely rainless for the entire month of August 1947.

Every ice day (temperature does not get above 0c all day) Birr has recorded since its records began in 1954. Beware that the station closed in 2009 so has not been recording since.

Date|Maximum Temperature|Minimum Temperature
30 Jan 2006|-0.4|-6.7
30 Dec 2000|-0.9|-3.3
29 Dec 2000|-1.1|-7.8
7 Feb 1991|-0.5|-4.2
13 Jan 1987|-3.5|-8.4
12 Jan 1987|-1.6|-6.8
18 Jan 1985|-0.8|-8.9
17 Jan 1985|-0.3|-7.0
19 Jan 1984|-0.1|-7.2
12 Jan 1982|-1.4|-14.6
11 Jan 1982|-1.0|-8.7
10 Jan 1982|-1.7|-7.1
9 Jan 1982|-1.1|-3.7
15 Feb 1979|-0.2|-5.8
1 Jan 1979|-0.4|-11.6
31 Dec 1978|-0.6|-8.8
12 Jan 1977|-0.7|-7.0
11 Jan 1977|-0.2|-2.2
17 Jan 1973|-1.1|-6.5
5 Jan 1972|-0.3|-4.9
9 Dec 1970|-1.4|-4.2
13 Jan 1963|-3.6|-11.6
12 Jan 1963|-1.9|-8.8
3 Jan 1962|-0.6|-7.1
2 Jan 1962|-1.7|-7.7
13 Jan 1959|-1.6|-6.1
1 Feb 1956|-0.1|-4.3


Data comes from Met Éireann.

mickmackey1 wrote: »

What was the lowest max ice day anywhere Syran?

-9.8c at Cavan (Loreto College) on December 21st 2010.

For today's historical post, I'm doing something to fit the theme of today and that was the extraordinary heat of April 1949 in the UK, it wasn't all that remarkable in Ireland at all - 1984 was our version of 1949. The Easter period of 1949 (15th-18th April) was the warmest on record with a CET of 14.5c. The second warmest in comparison was 2011 (22nd-25th April) which had a CET of 14.3c. Easter Saturday 1949 (16th April) recorded an air maximum temperature of 29.4c at Camden Square in London and this is the all-time UK April maximum temperature record to this day.

The setup for the period was very similar to that here in April 2018, coming off the back of a rather cold March in 1949 but not exceptionally so though February that year was mild unlike 2018. High pressure built to the east of Britain on Good Friday 1949 (15th April) drawing up very warm air from north Africa. In the strong Spring sunshine, temperatures soared with maxima of 20c or more across the majority of England and Wales, high teens for Scotland and mid teens for Ireland.

Good Friday 1949 temperature recordings at the following stations were their highest temperatures seen during the month.

Station|Maximum temperature
Manchester|23.3
Ross-on-Wye|23.9
Plymouth|21.7
Dublin Airport|17.6


Temperatures continued to go up on Easter Saturday in the southeast of England though and the April record was set. Other examples of temperature recordings on this day:

Station|Maximum temperature
London|28.9
Nottingham|24.4
Birmingham|23.9
Dunstable|26.7






A cold front swept through the British Isles during Saturday night with a few showers and thunderstorms in the northeast of England. Therefore, temperatures dropped on Easter Sunday but still above average. For example, Whitstable had a maximum of 27.8c. Easter Monday was another warm day especially in the east of England.

Data comes from UK Met Office and Met Éireann.

Artane2002 wrote: »

Sorry if this was answered already but what was the warmest upper temp recorded in Ireland? I'm going to assume -16c in Jan 1987 was the lowest.

Unsure sorry because usually our highest temperatures in Ireland are as a result of a sustained area of high pressure bringing blue skies unlike the UK which is mainly courtesy of southerly flows. In these sustained areas of high pressure, the upper air temperatures tend to not be record breakingly high as they do with southerly flows in the UK. Low pressure normally does be over Ireland whilst a southerly flow is taking place. Therefore, it's a tricky thing to find out.

Artane2002 wrote: »

Something similar happens in winter too I believe. Dec 2010 didn't have exceptionally low uppers but it had the lowest max recorded. Even the end of November 2016 had some very low max temperatures but the uppers weren't overly low. There was high pressure over us at the time I think. November 2016 was a brilliant month!

That's correct, the coldest of upper air temperatures come from easterlies, examples include which I have posted the charts of on here before: Feb/Mar 2018, Feb 1991, Jan 1987, Feb 1956.

What allowed the extremely low temperatures in Nov/Dec 2010 was the snow that fell and lied under the clear skies and lack of wind. The lying snow acted as an insulator for the cold to become severe. Why you did not see exceptionally low temperatures (at least at night) i.e. below -10c in 2018, 1987 etc was because of the cloud.

Yes, November 2016 was fantastic and Autumn 2016 in general was. Give me a November like 2016 any day. Very sunny and cold, perfect.

Artane2002 wrote: »

Autumn 2016 was the perfect Autumn. September had a hot spell at the start with a lot of sun (too hot for my liking), October was very benign and November was cold, sunny and it even snowed on one of the days. This is the perfect autumn combination for me.

Autumn 2016 was a tier below 2010 to me in perfection.

Let me name some highlights from Autumn 2010 of why:

- Sunniest on record

- First 3 days of September 2010 were very sunny and warm. Temperatures up to 22c and completely blue skies. It was magnificent back to school weather. I remember it very well. I was in St. Anne's Park on 30th August and it was 19c but completely blue skies. The night was cold getting down to low single figures which made for excellent sleeping.





- 5 to 7 September brought an active system northwards producing very heavy rain in places. Knock Airport had a daily rainfall of 86.5mm on the 6th! Yes, you read that right, nearly 90mm. I remember it drenching out of the heavens on this day. I could not go out for break in school and listening to the rain bashing against the windows. I loved the extreme rain following the lovely week of 29 August to 3 September which had blue skies and pleasant temperatures.



September had plenty of lovely sunny days in Dublin including another great settled sunny period from the 24th-27th with some notably cool nights developing. You would have loved the 14th September 2010 in particular, mid teen temperature, blue skies, fair breeze! I really do vividly remember these days and NEVER will forget them. 2010, I will adore and treasure til the day I die.

- Mid October 2010 brought a long settled spell from the 8th to the 21st with some days being very sunny. The 11th stands out to me because a lot of good things happened to me, it was 20c and completely blue skies! The 11 October 2010 remains my favourite day of my life.



- November 2010 was very sunny with an exceptionally cold and snowy end. The 27th/28th November remain my favourite snow days I've experienced. Little to no wind. Blue skies. Snow showers. Maximums and minimums below freezing. I was in love with the weather! Here's a picture by katzenjammer in Phoenix Park on 28 November 2010 to perfectly capture the fantastic (understatement) weather of this period!



Plenty more beautiful (again understatement) pics of the period here: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056102480&page=7

Bring back to 2010 days, please.