Christmas Day broke record for highest daily rainfall in December

Christmas Day saw the highest daily rainfall for December in 80 years of records at one weather station, according to Met Éireann.

Rainfall was above average in most places across the country in December, with the wettest conditions being in the South and the East. However, the highest daily rainfall total on Christmas Day broke records.

Johnstown Castle, Co Wexford weather station recorded 58.9mm daily total rainfall on Saturday 25th December, its wettest December day since its records began 80 years ago.

Met Éireann said nearly all rainfall totals were above their long-term average for the month.

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The number of rain days ranged from 15 days at Casement Aerodrome, Co Dublin to 26 days at Cork Airport. The number of wet days ranged from 10 days at Oak Park, Co Carlow to 21 days at a few stations. The number of very wet days3 ranged from 2 days at a few stations to 6 days at Johnstown Castle, Co Wexford.

In addition, temperatures were above average everywhere in the country during the month of December, according to Met Éireann.

The month’s highest temperature was reported at both Phoenix Park, Co Dublin and Casement Aerodrome, Co Dublin weather stations on Friday 31st December with a temperature of 14.6 degrees.

Monthly mean wind speeds ranged from 6.1 knots (11.9 km/h) at Ballyhaise, Co Cavan to 16.7 knots (30.9 km/h) at Mace Head, Co Galway.

Overall, December was mild with low-pressure dominating the first and final thirds of the month, bringing above average rainfall.

The first week saw a mild, mostly westerly airflow bring several Atlantic weather fronts across the country with widespread rain or showers interspersed with clear spells.

The week finished with a powerful mid-latitude Storm Barra, slowly crossing the country from west to east on Tuesday 7th. This brought widespread heavy rain, gales and storm force winds, which continued into Wednesday 8th.

Low-pressure to the north and high pressure to the south maintained a mostly westerly airflow up to the 15th, with the high pressure to the south building north and gradually gaining more control. This brought mostly dry conditions between the 13th and 21st as the area of high pressure built over Ireland and slowly moved to the north.

There were a few sunny breaks but also a lot of clouds with mist, fog and some frost at night.

The weather broke on the 22nd, with the rest of the month dominated by low-pressure to the west of Ireland pushing active weather fronts over the country from the south.