No silver lining in sight this summer
Desolate scenes at Dollymount Strand, Dublin, as Ireland gets bogged down in yet another miserable July. It was also the coolest June for between six and nine years
THE Irish summer, which has been conspicuous by its absence in recent weeks, may be dead in the water.
Most of the country will again be hit with heavy showers for the rest of this week and longer-term forecasts indicate that unsettled Atlantic weather systems will move in regularly during July and August.
There was more rain in some parts of the country -- including Dublin and Cork -- in the first six days of this month than would normally be expected in the whole of July.
However, Met Eireann yesterday couldn't confirm the long-term outlook. "We just don't do long-term forecasts," said forecaster Siobhan Ryan.
"The British Met Office does, but there are only a few places in the world that do because you have to have funds and it is expensive. They pass on a lot of information to us."
Dave Elliot, a forecaster at the British Met Office, yesterday said the wet and windy conditions would continue as systems moved in from the Atlantic. He said: "Rainfall is looking above average or similar to average for the rest of the summer, with the temperatures nearly average, or a touch below."
The skies over Ireland also opened repeatedly last month, in the coolest June in many places for six to nine years.
Coolest
In some inland areas, ground frost was recorded. But any hopes July will see an upturn in the weather now look forlorn.
"We've already exceeded monthly rain mean totals for July in a number of areas," Ms Ryan said yesterday, revealing that 60.7mm has already fallen at Dublin Airport, compared with a normal average for the whole of July of 50mm, while Cork has seen 75mm.
"It certainly looks like the east and south have been worst affected but the other places have also got more than half of their average July rainfall and we're only a week in."
A further half-inch (13mm) of rain is forecast in some areas tonight, and the weather forecast for the rest of the week is described as "a mixed bag", with some good sunshine but plenty of heavy showers. As memories of the mini-heatwave in May grow ever more distant, it will be a similar soggy story for the weekend.
The 80,000 music fans expected to attend the Oxegen festival at Punchestown have been warned to prepare themselves for a deluge.
"It will certainly be cloudy and showery," Met Eireann's Vincent O'Shea said. "Friday will perhaps be the worst day. There will be some sunshine on Sunday but it will only be for the first half of the day."
Mr O'Shea said that there would be "no chance" of any sustained periods of dry weather over the whole weekend.
- Jason O'Brien
