Ireland’s record-breaking year of weather in three charts: From flash floods to heatwaves

Ireland is set to experience unseasonably warm weather for October this weekend as highs of 24 degrees are forecast for the east of the country.

The highest temperature ever recorded in Ireland in the month of October was 25.2 degrees at Clongowes Wood on October 3rd, 1908.

It comes days after scientists described as new global temperature record as ‘gobsmacking’.

The Earth had the hottest September on record by a record-breaking margin, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said on Thursday.

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“This continues an extended streak of extraordinary land and sea-surface temperatures and is an ominous signal about the speed with which greenhouse gases are changing our climate,” the WMO said on Thursday.

In Ireland, 14 stations broke their September maximum temperature record this year and it was the 3rd warmest September on record in Ireland, one which had stood for 124 years.

This comes on the back of an extraordinary year of extremes in Irish weather so far, from rain to heat.

As Met Éireann meteorologist Liz Walsh said in June of the challenges and threats posed by climate change: “We will see things we have never seen before. And while the signals for Ireland are not that strong, there will be extremes.”

Here is a snapshot of Ireland’s year of record-breaking weather in three charts:

Wettest March

March was the wettest March on record at four stations in Ireland. These were Athenry, Co Galway with 185.9 mm , Mace Head, Co Galway with 151.2 mm, Mount Dillon, Co Roscommon with 169.8 mm and Casement Aerodrome, Co Dublin with 109.3mm.

Flash Flooding in July

July brought flash floods in Donegal after 76mm of rain fell on a single day. This month saw above average rainfall everywhere and it was the wettest on record at 12 weather stations. There was 300 per cent of total monthly rainfall at Dunsany, Co Meath (its wettest July on record).

Hottest June on record

June 2023 was the hottest June on record in Ireland, with average day and night temperatures above 16 degrees. The highest temperature recorded was 28.8 degrees in Carlow.