Forget weather apps: Anyone can forecast an Irish summer

WE are obsessed with the weather. On this damp, soggy, little island outpost of Western Europe, on the edge of the North Atlantic ocean, our lives are more complicated than they should be, thanks to our transient, dysfunctional weather. Venturing forth of a morning requires advance preparation .

My daughter was home on holidays from Perth, in Australia, last summer. She had forgotten about our weather. She had forgotten that just because the sun is in a blue sky at 9am doesn’t mean it will stay there.

“You might want to take a brolly”, I’d offer, as she headed out the door, “or have you a cardigan?” “Jesus!” she’d mutter. “I couldn’t be doing with this anymore.”

But surely our lives are easier because of weather apps, which can deliver forecasts to our phones based on our GPS location? But just how accurate are they? For a week, I tracked what they were advising.

The apps I use are Irish Weather and the iPhone weather widget. But I also downloaded Accuweather, Yahoo Weather and YR.No, which is a Norwegian app that was recommended to. I began on Wednesday, July 8, by checking the forecast for the following day, knowing I would have those two loads of washing ready for the line on Thursday morning.

The first thing all apps tell you is the current weather. That Wednesday evening, the temperature varied from 9 degrees, with Accuweather and Irish Weather, to 14 degrees, with YR, in Norway. However, they all agreed that, the following day, there would be sun with some cloud, and temperatures that would reach 19 degrees. And so it was. Two loads joyously dried outdoors.

The following day, I had a hair appointment. Now, although I would love to report that I had some fabulous event to attend with my new hair on Friday evening, I didn’t. But even so, when I spend hard-earned euros on my barnet, I get very cross if Mother Nature decides to make a bird’s nest of it as soon as I leave the salon. So I checked the weather on Thursday, before I headed to bed.

All my apps were telling me the same thing. Temperatures would be warm (for Ireland), at about 20 degrees, and weather would be the usual Irish mix of sun and cloud, with a chance of rain later in the day (a 50% chance, according to Accuweather). As my appointment was early afternoon, I decided to go ‘ahead’ (no pun intended). But I had forgotten to look at the wind forecast. Mother Nature added extra bounce to my bouncy blowdry.

On Friday night, I tuned into the RTÉ TV weather forecast, and my heart sank as it was announced that the jet stream had gone south. That’s never good news. Mixed weather was forecast for the following week, with rain and wind coming in from the Atlantic.

But, as usual, we were told “there will also be sunny spells.” As my 80-year-old mother might say, “well, we’re none the wiser now.” I mean, ‘wind and rain from the Atlantic and some sunny spells’ describes the entire Irish summer.

So I checked my apps. According to them, Saturday would be warm, with temperatures reaching highs of 18 to 20 degrees, with rain in the afternoon. I spent most of Saturday in the garden, trying to put some manners on it.

But I held off using weed killer, because of the forecasted showers later in the day, which would just wash it off. In the end, there were a few spots of rain, but nothing to worry about. The weeds are thriving.

One of the best features of the Irish Weather app is the rainfall radar, because, in Ireland, bands of rain can twist and turn in all directions. When I checked out what had happened to the forecasted rain, it looked like my little corner of south Dublin was one of the only areas of the east coast to have been spared a soaking. But that’s not really forecasting. It’s more explaining afterwards what had happened. On Sunday, I was floored by a migraine. I think it was a nice day. But I spent it in a darkened room, so have no idea, really.

Monday was TV day, so the forecast would have a bearing on what I would wear out to TV3, for Midday. Although their make-up department can work miracles, I try not to arrive looking like the proverbial wreck of the Hesperus. All my trusty apps agreed — there would be lots of rain. Irish Weather said it would clear by midday (the time, not the programme, which actually starts at 11:30), although the Norwegian app, YR, said it would rain till 6pm.

A boring black dress was decided upon and sandals were ditched in favour of waterproof courts. You won’t be surprised to hear that although it had clearly rained during the night, the morning remained dry and very warm and humid.

That’s part of our weather problem, right there. We get so focussed on rain that we forget to take notice of the temperature. I wasn’t just boring — I was also very hot in my ‘widow’s ensemble’.

On Monday night, I thought I should check out what other weather information was available online. Metcheck.com is a nice, chatty forecast and seems to have a thing about clouds. “Cloud-wise”, it said “we are looking at a few clouds at 1,000 ft and a lot at 2,000ft”.

I have no idea if a cloud’s height is significant, but it sounded lovely. In general, though, the forecast was, yep, you’ve guessed it... cloudy, with intermittent rain showers and sunny spells.

If you are into sports, particularly water sports, then Windfinder.com is the site for you.

Here you will find details of where the wind is coming from at any given time of the day and also how the waves are — their height and direction. It’s laid out like a spreadsheet — so it’s not very exciting, but I guess water-sport enthusiasts get their excitement offline.

The UK Met Office has a nice, simple site, with graphics that give reasonably specific information for Dun Laoghaire. For Tuesday, it said there would be rain between 7am and 10am, that at 1pm there would be dark clouds and that at 4pm the clouds would be lighter. Turned out to be pretty accurate.

So my experiment finished on St Swithin’s Day, when lore tell us “St Swithin’s Day, if it does rain, full forty days, it will remain. St Swithin’s Day, if it be fair, for forty days, t’will rain no more.” At the moment, the sun is shining and the sky is blue and I have my fingers crossed. I don’t care what the apps say.