Last month was the wettest March on Irish record, according to provisional data released by Met Éireann. The forecaster has said that the average of 173.3 millimetres of rainfall across the country eclipsed the previous record set by March of 2019. The figure was 169 per cent of the 1981-2010 long-term average (LTA).
The news follows February of this year being the fourth driest on record for that month. There was a nationwide average of only 33.9mm of rainfall in February, down 65 per cent from the LTA. Met Éireann’s records extend back 83 years.
January of this year fell just below average in terms of rainfall, with its national average of 129.8mm representing 99 per cent of the LTA.
As things stand all the data for 2023 is provisional. According to a Met Éireann spokeswoman, this is because rainfall stations take time to return their totals: “A number of mountain stations report only monthly, and these are not available yet. Once all the stations return their totals, the gridding will be repeated, and the data and monthly averages are no longer provisional.”
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The forecaster said that more information would be provided in the March Climate Statement on Tuesday.
