Wave goodbye to a normal summer
IT may have seemed like a cracking summer after the wash-outs of the past three years -- but only because our expectations have dropped so low.
The past three months have been little better than what constitutes a normal Irish summer, according to official figures, which were released today.
MET Eireann's Peter Lennon said a dry, warm June and August made up for what was a wet, dull month of July.
The big story was the drop in rainfall compared to the last few years.
"We've had three wet summers before this year, so it was a big improvement in those terms," he said. "There were mixed periods, but we had a lot of good weather."
The biggest improvement came at Cork Airport, which was 12pc below its average for rainfall.
Claremorris, Co Mayo, however, was 19pc above average for rainfall. The region also had the highest daily rainfall of the summer with 55.5mm on July 10 -- more rain than the area's had on any given summer's day since 1964.
Knock, Co Mayo, recorded the most rainfall of the summer with 302mm falling there.
The lowest rainfall recorded was in Oak Park, Co Carlow, with 157mm for the summer.
Average temperatures around the country were just above normal.
Dublin Airport caught the most sunshine with a total of 554 hours. The highest daily sunshine recorded was 16 hours at Casement Aerodrome on June 20.
The warmest day of the summer was at Ballyhaise, Co Cavan on June 21 when temperatures hit 24.9C. The coldest day was in Gurteen, Co Sligo last Monday when temperatures plunged to 0.6C.
Unfortunately, the fine weather we've enjoyed throughout August is set to come to an end before the end of the week.
- Colin Gleeson
Irish Independent
