Indian summer due as dry, settled period expected at last

An Indian summer is on the way after the real summer turned out to be another disappointment.

The “summer” will end on Monday with another deluge of rain, but after that high pressure will appear over the country, bringing the type of settled bright weather which has been conspicuous by its absence for most of the summer.

The Azores High, which brings good weather to Ireland and has been missing in action this year, is building up northwards towards Iceland.

Met Éireann forecaster Siobhan Ryan says next week looks "dry, settled and calm, with little or no wind".

It is too late for the children going back to school, but it augers well for the Electric Picnic taking place at Stradbally in early September, with highs of 18 degrees, though night time temperatures will fall back to single figures.

August is already shaping up to be considerably wetter than normal. Some 53mm (more than two inches of rain) fell at Knock Airport on Sunday, while most parts of the country had more than 25mm.

Tuesday was also an exceptionally wet day. Most parts of the west, midlands and east got more than 12mm (half an inch) of rain.

Met Éireann climatologist Aidan Murphy said the summer has been worse than normal, but it had not been especially bad. "It wouldn't be in the worst 20 per cent of summers. By no means has it been an exceptionally bad summer," he said.

‘Below average’

“It is a slightly below average Irish summer in Dublin, and worse than that outside Dublin.”

Mr Murphy said rainfall will be about normal for the season in Dublin and the east coast, and slightly worse than normal elsewhere in the country.

The summer has felt bad because temperatures have been between 1 degree and 1.5 degrees below average. “There has been no real fine spell, though June was good overall,” he said. July was poor and August was average, but for the two very wet days.

August seems certain to be considerably wetter and more miserable than usual, though much of the rainfall fell on just two days.

Drier than average

June was drier than average, but also cooler. July was “cold, wet and windy everywhere” with some weather stations recording historically miserable conditions.

Monthly air temperatures were 1 degree lower than the long-term average in most areas, while Markree, Co Sligo, and Ballyhaise, Co Cavan, recorded mean temperatures 2.1 degrees below average, their coldest Julys in seven and eight years respectively.

All monthly rainfall stations had above average rainfall for July. Long-term average values were highest in the south, with Cork Airport reporting 158.8mm of rain, its wettest July since 2009.