Woeful weather set to continue

IT is cold, often wet and definitely miserable — welcome to the Irish summer.

Met Éireann yesterday dampened any hopes of good weather for the rest of May and said current inclement conditions are set to continue, although not quite at the extreme levels of last Sunday.

The weather wreaked havoc on some sporting events, with the postponement on Sunday of the final round of the Nissan Irish Open in Co Kildare and of the Connacht senior football clash between Galway and Sligo, rescheduled for next Saturday.

A proposed dive off Hook Head by naval officers to the sunken fishing vessel Maggie B was also put on hold yesterday due to the weather.

Agricultural shows and other events also fell victim to Sunday’s continual downpour, and some parts of the country experienced half-a-month’s rainfall in just one day.

Valencia and Cork saw 30mm of rain on Sunday and Dublin saw 23mm of rainfall, while temperatures yesterday — helped by biting northern winds — plummeted to a chilly 10 degrees celsius and below in some parts of the country.

The bad news is that the poor weather is expected to continue for some time.

Joan Blackburn of Met Éireann said that more rain fronts will pass over the country in the coming days. “The bad weather is unusual but not exceptional for this time of the year.”

“It going to continue to be unsettled but not like the extreme weather we had on Sunday. We have had this low pressure system which slowed down over us and that has moved on to Britain but there is another band of rain lined up to come in and that is a feature for the rest of the week.”

Temperatures in May typically range from 13.5 celsius to 16.5 celsius, although yesterday’s falling temperatures had people adopting winter wear at a time when they normally turn to shirt sleeves and suntan lotion.