Ireland

August was Ireland’s second wettest on record

Donegal’s Malin Head saw 29 ‘rain days’ last month

Last month was the second wettest August on record but rainfall levels varied greatly across Ireland. Photograph: Alan Betson
Sarah Slater
Tue Sept 03 2024 - 18:56

People living in the north and northwest saw much wetter and colder weather than people in other parts of Ireland last month, Met Éireann data shows.

Malin Head in Co Donegal and Newport in Co Mayo had their wettest August on record, with Malin Head recording 29 rain days – in contrast to 14 such days at Phoenix Park, Co Dublin.

A rain day is a day on which 0.2mm or more of rainfall is measured.

For Ireland as a whole, it was its second wettest August on record and the wettest since 1985.

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Forecaster Paul Moore said the location where a person lives has a huge bearing on what type of weather is experienced “even in a small country like Ireland”.

Highlighting a “big disparity” between the northwest and southeast, he said: “The climate trend of warmer and wetter summers is continuing when it comes to comparing the data over two 30-year periods of weather information.

“There is a lot more moisture in the air when there is low pressure and that low pressure positioned itself over the north and northwest but petered out once it got to the east and southeast.”

Last month was the 35th warmest since the national forecaster started recording temperatures 125 years ago.

Overall the average temperature reached 15.5 degrees for the entire month. The temperature is 0.20 degrees above the most recent 1991-2020 long-term average (LTA), 0.28 degrees above the period from 1981 to 2020 and 0.79 degrees above the years 1961 to 1990 for August.

Provisional rainfall data for Ireland suggests August this saw 114 per cent or 117 millimetres of its 1981-2010 long term average rainfall and 113 per cent from 1991 and 2020.

When it comes to rainfall, it was the wettest in the northwest and driest in the east and south. Percentage of 1981-2010 LTA rainfall values were variable across the country.

They ranged from 50 per cent, the month’s lowest monthly rainfall total of 36.6mm, at Dublin Airport, Co Dublin to 204 per cent, monthly rainfall total of 208.1mm at Belmullet, Co Mayo which was its wettest August since 1992. Monthly rainfall totals were as much as 257.5mm or 194 per cent of its LTA at Newport, Co Mayo.

The number of wet days ranged from eight days at both Phoenix Park, and Casement Aerodrome, Co Dublin to 25 days at Athenry, Co Galway. The number of very wet days ranged from zero days at Moore Park, Co Cork to 13 days at Newport, Co Mayo.

The month’s wettest day was also recorded at Newport, with 34.6mm on Sunday 4th.

Two stations had their wettest August on record. These were Malin Head, Co Donegal with 181.3mm (record length 69 years) and Knock airport, Co Mayo with 215.4mm (record length 28 years).

The month’s highest temperature was reported at Casement Aerodrome, Co Dublin on Sunday 11th with a temperature of 24.3 degrees while month’s lowest air minimum was recorded on Saturday 31st at Mount Dillon, Co Roscommon with 3.5 degrees.