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Irish Weather Statistics
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Interesting data on number of thunder days per year for a few Irish stations. Seems to have been a slight decrease over time with the 2010s decade quite lacking in thunder days. 2023 bucked the trend somewhat.
Most thundery years based on this data
2008 9 days
2000 8 days
1982 8 days
1995 8 days
2014 7 days*
Least thundery years
2021 2 days*
2018 2 days*
2011 2 days
1988 3 days
1993 3 days
*Belmullet data not available.
Photography site - https://www.sryanbruenphoto.com/
Weather photo portfolio - https://sryanbruen.myportfolio.com/weather-1
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Interesting to see a different spin on my usual Irish rainfall stats I share - this one is running 10-day averages since August 2019 with different periods noted.
7th June 2023 was the last time the 10-day average was at 0mm. 18th January was the last time it was under 1mm.
Wettest days on this daily series (goes back to 2009)
5th Dec 2015 32.7mm (Storm Desmond)
19th Nov 2009 30.4mm (infamous Cork flood)
6th Sep 2010 29.8mm
1st Nov 2009 23.5mm
23rd Oct 2011 21.8mm
6th Nov 2014 20.7mm
12th Dec 2015 20.0mm
13th Nov 2014 20.0mmWettest day per month
31st Jan 2014 17.4mm
9th Feb 2020 19.5mm
29th Mar 2010 16.6mm
6th Apr 2010 13.7mm
20th May 2021 15.4mm
7th Jun 2012 19.9mm
10th Jul 2010 19.3mm
2nd Aug 2014 19.2mm
6th Sep 2010 29.8mm
23rd Oct 2011 21.8mm
19th Nov 2009 30.4mm
5th Dec 2015 32.7mmPretty interesting how despite being quite a dry year (the driest year in the series), 2010 has 4 of the 12 months' wettest days. Only other year with more than one is 2014 which has 2.
Photography site - https://www.sryanbruenphoto.com/
Weather photo portfolio - https://sryanbruen.myportfolio.com/weather-1
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There's a lot of misconceptions and false memories of how the May/June period of 2023 evolved weather wise. This post is going to analyse the period and hopefully put all of the false memories to rest.
I have already shared a few of the stat related images in my 2023 extremes analysis above but including them here again for this one as they are relevant.
The start of May 2023 was very benign with ridging through the country giving a lot of dry weather but skies were rather milky and temperatures not all that far from average though rising in the upper teens in any sunshine. At times, there was light rain or showers near the west coast.
Low pressure in the Atlantic approached Ireland by the 5th leading to sunshine and showers, some involving thunder. It was fairly warm for early May with nearing 20C in sheltered eastern areas from the southerly flow. It was quite a blustery southerly wind reaching gale force at Malin Head. This low would fill and winds would calm down for the next few days. The weekend of the 6th/7th started off with sunshine and scattered showers whilst the 7th transitioned from a dry start with sunny spells followed by rain approaching from the west later. Temperatures continued to be rather above average in the upper teens.
Another depression made its way towards Iceland on the 7th into the 8th bottoming out at 978mb. A showery day followed with unusually intense thunderstorm activity taking place in the late afternoon to evening hours in the east. Rather warm in the sunshine earlier in the day reaching 20.2C at the Phoenix Park.
More showers involving thunderstorms occurred on the 9th but not nearly as intense and fresher Atlantic air was coming in behind fronts.
By this stage, although temperatures have hardly been dramatic in any way - just barely reached 20C on the 8th in Dublin - mean temperatures for the month of May were exceptionally high thanks to persistence of daytime temperatures in the mid to upper teens and night time temperatures have been well above average under a mild airmass.
After a few showery and cooler days, the Azores High sent a ridge in Ireland's direction from the 12th. To less or better extent, this would become the prime dominance for a good month. The May/June dry spell started around this point, statistically on the 15th. At times, weak fronts approached from the west giving light rain such as on the 14th, 20th and 21st but on the whole, it was very dry. It wasn't wall to wall sunshine, at least for a while. Temperatures were variable but unremarkable ranging in the mid to upper teens and occasionally touching 20C until the 26th.
From the 26th, a large anticyclone exerted its influence strongly across Ireland with temperatures in the low 20s for sheltered western areas and midlands. Sunshine became more prolonged and widespread. As winds later veered easterly, it tended to be cooler in the east and it struggled to reach anything better than upper teens on the east coast. Meanwhile, Shannon Airport achieved 24.9C on the 30th but this is not a remarkable value. Nonetheless, the 29th May would be the beginning of an exceptional spell of consecutive days of 20C for stations like Shannon Airport and Athenry which would last until the 24th June. Such a spell of consecutive temperatures at individual stations has not been seen in Ireland since summer 1995.
The anticyclone adjusted itself to the northwest of Ireland by the final day of May into early June bringing in more of a cooler northeasterly flow. This meant temperatures were even more suppressed along eastern coasts not getting any better than mid-teens. Further inland though 20C was easily achieved in any sunshine and it was up to 25C in sheltered western areas.
The northeasterly flow also brought in low cloud off the Irish Sea to the east coast during the middle of the day from the 31st May-2nd June which added a further barrier to allowing the temperature to rise here. The cloud broke up during the evenings with widespread clear skies nationwide.
The high pressure built more over the country for the June Bank Holiday Weekend from the 3rd-5th cutting off the northeasterly flow. This meant there wasn't as much of a cooling airflow for eastern areas and there would be no low cloud approaching from the sea. There was widespread unbroken sunshine for each of the days. Nights were rather cool under light winds and clear skies. 25C continued to be achieved in the west with up to 26.5C at Ardfert on the 5th. It was a bit breezier at times on the south coast but it was near calm for much of the period.
The ridge weakened on the 6th building back again further northward allowing the northeasterly flow to return decreasing the temperature for eastern coasts. The 6th was quite a cool day here under persistent low cloud during the middle of the day but again like the 31st May-2nd June, it broke up during the evening with sunshine returning. Otherwise, it was much the same with good sunshine for a lot of the country and warmth continuing in the west.
The 7th was very similar to the 6th but not as warm as it had been for a week in the west.
Pressure continued to lower and the anticyclone developed more towards Scandinavia by the 10th. Initially, it continued dry with sunny spells and warmer again especially in the west but showers ended the absolute drought period for much of Ireland on the 10th. Dublin Airport had its longest absolute drought (15 consecutive days+ of less than 0.2mm) since 1955 with 26 days from 15th May-9th June 2023. Phoenix Park had its longest absolute drought on record. Ireland hadn't seen as persistent a dry spell since 2018 which is remarkable considering how wet 2023 would end up being as a year and in general how wet it has been since September 2022.
However whilst it was the end of the statistical drought, by no means was it a return to the norm or Atlantic dominated deluge conditions. In fact, it remained mostly dry for a while but there was intense thunderstorm activity in places which I will get into.
Up to this point in time, there was a significant contrast in average temperature across Ireland. Parts of the west were exceptionally warm with mean temperatures as much as 3-5C above average. In contrast with all the easterly to northeasterly winds, the east was much cooler and in fact it was nearly a degree below average for the Dublin area.
The Scandinavian high exerted its influence westward towards Ireland on the 13th. A very warm airmass was brought in via this airflow leading to the warmest day of the year up there with 8th September. The air temperature reached as much as 28.8C at Oak Park which is the earliest on record for a temperature this high. 29C was achieved provisionally at Bunclody (Wexford) and Dundalk (Louth) but the Dundalk value of 29.7C was disregarded and no update on the Bunclody value has been given. It was an exceptionally warm day for this early in the summer season. The combination of dry soils and an ideal pattern were perfect for skyrocketing temperatures in Ireland, if it were slightly later in the season… 30C probably would have been easily achieved.
The 14th/15th were also notably warm days with Athy (Kildare) seeing 28.1C on the 15th and Durrow (Laois) as well as Glenties Hatchery (Donegal) seeing 28.0C on the 14th.
Newport (Mayo) had 5 consecutive days where the temperature did not fall below 15C, truly remarkable for June.
Thunderstorms occurred in various parts of the country later in the day. This would become the first of 8 consecutive thunder days in Ireland - such a persistent period of thunder activity has likely not been seen before in Ireland in modern reliable records.
The other thing to note at this point is with all this persistence of high pressure and huge solar radiation into the North Atlantic, sea temperatures were at an all-time high. The values seen would be exceptional for the heart of summer.
The ridge declined by the 16th with more cloud around and very intense thunderstorms occurring on the 17th and 20th. 27mm of rain fell within 30 minutes at Killarney on the 20th. This was when it started to be more changeable but only gradually. A few days of scattered showers afterwards with high pressure building to the east bringing more of a southwesterly to southerly flow by the 23rd. All the while, it continued to be on the warm side touching the low to mid 20s.
Thunderstorms returned on the 25th with significant hail reported in the southeast including a couple of cm covering in Enniscorthy (Wexford). What a month June 2023 was for thunderstorms in Ireland.
The final week of June was changeable with sunshine and showers generally speaking. Temperatures still on the rather warm side but cooling down through the final two days and more persistent rain on the 30th as the Atlantic finally broke through but until early September, that was the end of the warm, summery weather.
June 2023 ended as by far the warmest June on record across Ireland. Only the Phoenix Park and Dublin Airport failed to be the warmest on record where here it was the warmest since 1976 - likely due to how cool the early month was before the warmth finally arrived here too on the 11th.
Mean maxima were comparable to an above average July and an average June is nearly 2C cooler than the average July. They were also not worlds above the average maxima of June 2018 but June 2023 had significantly warmer nights than 2018. I don't have much information on June 1940 which was the previous warmest June on record for the nation.
May ended on the sunny side but overall wasn't anything notable sunshine wise. June meanwhile had good sunshine a fair bit of the time once intense thunderstorm activity wasn't ongoing or low cloud coming in off the sea to eastern and southern areas. It was the sunniest June since 2009 at Malin Head with 251.8 hrs of sunshine. Many had their sunniest June since 2018.
I hope this look back has refreshed the memory banks and there will be no more false recollections of May/June 2023.
Thanks for reading.
Photography site - https://www.sryanbruenphoto.com/
Weather photo portfolio - https://sryanbruen.myportfolio.com/weather-1
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This post will be discussing the summer of 1989 which was one of the most forgotten but greatest Irish summers of all-time if it's warmth and dry you seek.
The summer pattern began in May 1989 following a cold April. The first day of May and we can already see a classic summer pattern signature with no sign of Greenland or Iceland blocking, indicative of a +NAO. Azores high ridging up from the southwest into the UK. Ireland not quite feeling the effects yet with a cloudy and humid southwesterly flow but the cold April was a distant memory.
High pressure started building in the days afterwards leading to the first warm weather of the month and "summer". 22.3C was recorded at Ardfert (Kerry) on the 6th and 22.1C at Lanesboro (Longford) on the 7th. Nothing exceptional but pretty warm for this early on. A period of cooler weather followed as ridging retrogressed westward up to the 13th. Even the best Mays and summers have periods like this.
Ridging built back up from the south on the 16th and would come and go for the rest of the month with a strong influence leading to an increase in temperatures. It would become exceptionally warm for the time of year by the 22nd.
On the 18th before the warm spell got really going, a trough between two high pressure centres became slow-moving over Ireland leading to thunderstorms. 13.3mm of rain fell in an hour at Casement.
Southeasterly winds and high pressure over Scandinavia ushered in very high temperatures for May across Ireland on the 22nd and 23rd. It was much cooler on the east coast in the upper teens. Unusually Valentia (Kerry) had the highest temperature in the country with a max of 26.9C on the 22nd. This would stand as its record high May temperature until 1997. This was the highest May temperature anywhere in the country since 1922. It became relatively cooler after the 23rd but until the final few days, 20C was still achieved on a significant scale. It was not quite the warmest May on record but was way up there - Valentia had its highest May mean maximum on record and warmest mean since 1893.
Isolated thunderstorms occurred. Overall, May was an extremely dry month across the bulk of Ireland. It was the driest May on record for Rosslare (Wexford), Cork Airport and Dublin Airport which escaped the thundery rain on the 18th. Rosslare had just 6.0mm of rain all month and Cork Airport had 8.4mm.
May was also very sunny with almost all stations exceeding 200 hrs with the exception of Birr. Totals were as high as 251.2 hrs at Roches Point (Cork). No records were set however.
A big change happened in the final days of May 1989 with high pressure retrogressing westward allowing a cool northerly flow to develop. It continued to be on the dry side but temperatures were very suppressed. Maxima up north were just around 10C by day including only 10.0C at Ballyshannon (Donegal) on the 31st. There was also air frost at night locally including -1.5C at Naas (Kildare) with harsh grass frost, as low as -8.2C at Lanesboro.
So one of the warmest Mays on record ends on a decidedly cold note. Classic weather flips which can and always will happen.
That takes us nicely into June 1989 which was a month of contrasts. The first 10 days were very cool. Average temperatures were a good 3-4C below average. For example, Clones (Monaghan) had a mean temperature of 9.6C by the 8th which is 3.3C below its 61-90 average. This was all brought about by a persistent northerly flow as high pressure always stayed out to the west. Letterkenny (Donegal) reportedly had an air frost of -0.1C on the 8th, not too sure about that but the airmass was cold and slack. Malin Head had a min temp of 2.6C on this same day, its lowest June temp since 1955. Casement had a min temp of 0.7C on the 1st, its lowest for June since 1975. The daily max temp was just 10.2C at Clones and 10.6C at Naas on the 2nd.
A change occurred by the 10th with a southerly flow as high pressure to our west was replaced by low pressure. It took a few days for temperatures to recover though to above average values. This period was very wet in places with slow-moving fronts including 39.3mm at Claremorris (Mayo) on the 9th.
On the 16th June, a strong ridge of high pressure intensified as it developed over Ireland giving widespread sunshine and well above average temperatures. In fact, they were exceptionally high. Something strange was going to occur - none of the Republic of Ireland achieved 30C from this period but Northern Ireland did. Armagh achieved 30.0C on the 19th before a quick cool down. This wouldn't be the only occasion of 30C anywhere on the island this summer. Many had highs in the 27-29C range on the 18th and 19th June including 28.6C at Birr (Offaly), 28.5C at Shannon Apt (Clare) and 28.1C at Kilkenny. Even the east coast was well into the 20s minus the SE corner.
Between the 14th and 24th June, Rosslare had more than 10 hrs of sunshine each day.
As high pressure weakened and retrogressed westward, the rest of June was cooler and more changeable. Was this the sign of the times? Was the summer on life support now? Was May and that short mid-June warm period the best the summer had to offer? Nope. In fact the best was still to come and records were going to be broken.
Two days into July and already high pressure is building from the Azores as the jet stream gets shoved northward. This high pressure would be a strong influence through most of July bringing an exceptionally warm, dry and sunny month.
At the time, this traded blows with July 1983 as the warmest month on record depending on the location. The daytime temperatures were sustained in the 20s day after day after day resulting in mean maximum temperatures that were between 3-5C above the relevant average. Kilkenny had a mean maximum temp of 24.0C with 20C achieved here every day between the 2nd and 30th and 13 of these were above 25C. Even Dublin Apt had a streak of consecutive 20C days of 21 days, its longest ever on record and still is to present.
The highest temperature of the month was 30.5C at Lanesboro on 19th July. Shannon Apt had 30.0C on the 18th. Roches Point's max of 27.5C on the 15th was its highest on record. Minimums were also exceptionally high at times. This month features the highest of any minimum temperature on record with 20.9C at Derrygreenagh (Offaly) on the 25th July. This was only one of 7 tropical nights (a min temp >20C during the climatological day of 09-09 UTC) on record in Ireland. Whilst not a tropical night, Naas had a min of 19.3C on the 22nd July.. I'll remind this same station had -1.5C on the 31st May.
The month was very dry - the driest July on record at Birr where records go back to 1872 with 12.8mm of rain falling during July. Only 6.9mm fell all month at Kilkenny and 9.6mm at Dublin Apt. It was the driest July for other places since 1982, 1983 or 1984. The exceptionally dry, sunny and warm May and July 1989 gave rise to very high soil moisture deficits with as much as nearly 100mm at Oak Park through July. It's a miracle how a hosepipe ban wasn't issued or at least not from what I've been able to see but nonetheless, I'd say the water supply was being rationed in some places. Gorse fires were frequent.
To finish off the fine statistics of July 1989 and already hinted at, July was very sunny. With the exception of Clones however, it wasn't as sunny as July 1955. Clones had 252.2 hrs of sun making it the sunniest July on record here and the sunniest month until August 1995. It was cloudier at times in the north with 159.6 hrs at Belmullet and 163.8 hrs at Malin Head through July though these are still above average. Roches Point was the sunniest station through July with 264.8 hrs.
May-July 1989 was one of the sunniest of any tri-monthly period on record in Ireland. Numerous stations had exceeded 200+ hrs of sunshine in each of these months. Roches Point had 753.9 hrs of sun during this period, an average of 8.2 hrs of sun per day. Probably the sunniest of any period in Ireland since Rosslare's exceptionally sunny summer in 1959.
There wasn't much in the way of thunderstorms during July with it being mostly anticyclonic and very dry. However, thunder did occur in the south on the 7th as a low pushed westward from the continent.
High pressure wasn't often centred right over Ireland, rather it varied in position through the course of the month - sometimes being just to the west but having enough influence to keep it very warm, right over home or to the east drawing in warm southerly or southeasterly winds.
Compared to recent months, August 1989 was unsettled and rather mild instead of very warm to hot. The first few days had weak high pressure still hanging on by its finger tips before an active cold front spread south on the 5th bringing thunderstorms. This set the scene for the month with westerlies dominating. As a result, it was rather wet for most bringing an end to the very dry weather that had been frequent since May but there had been wetter Augusts in the 1980s - most notably 1985 and 1986. Perhaps a bit unusually despite the month being westerly, it was quite humid with a sticky feel to the weather evident during a lot of the period. This is what the Met mentions at least, I don't note anything outstanding for average dew points and relative humidity from the stats.
The highest temperature of the month was early on with 24.4C at Casement on the 3rd.
More than half the month contained gale force winds at Belmullet (16 days) and Malin Head (20 days). This synoptic showing deep low pressure just out to the west of Ireland was typical.
That's a wrap on the summer of 1989 which for quite a dry and very warm summer sure had its mix of fortunes. September was back to the dry theme but cloudy and cooler compared to the summer months and May.
Photography site - https://www.sryanbruenphoto.com/
Weather photo portfolio - https://sryanbruen.myportfolio.com/weather-1
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Met Éireann have confirmed that 2023 was Ireland's wettest year on record, narrowly beating the previous wettest years of 2009 and 2015. This included the wettest March and wettest July on record as a reminder.
Photography site - https://www.sryanbruenphoto.com/
Weather photo portfolio - https://sryanbruen.myportfolio.com/weather-1
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