July: record sunshine amid a month of rain

BELIEVE it or not there was above average sunshine at every weather station in the country during July.

Malin Head caught more rays than in any other summer for 52 years.

This is according to the bona fide monthly weather report from Met Éireann.

At first glance it flies in the face of the pasty miserable features on everybody who has not enjoyed a holiday yet this year.

And it reveals what was missed by those who did not look up from under their umbrellas for the past four weeks.

Peter Lennon of Met Eireann’s Climate Section said the figures may be explained because some people may have slept through the best of the weather.

“What we saw a lot of is throughout the mornings there would have been a lot of dry conditions and the showers built up in the evenings. The sunshine levels probably are the most surprising thing from the last month but sometimes you do get both in the summer time,” he said.

National meteorologists rely on an instrument called the Campbell Stokes Sunshine Recorder to determine the levels of brightness.

This is a glass ball and when the sun is shining bright enough it burns a hole in a card. Because the sun is lower in the sky at sun rise and sunset, it also leaves scorch marks at these times.

Newer methods are available to Met Éireann but in order to be consistent with traditional records Campbell Stokes prevails.

However, the ingenuity of John Francis Campbell and George Gabriel Stokes will not deny us the real story of the month.

Summer rainfall levels were 250% higher than normal.

According to the monthly report, the Phoenix Park witnessed more rain in June and July since statisticians opened the records 170 years ago.

And, amid an increasing focus on climate change, it was the first time in 18 months the temperature did not rise above the 30-year average.

Mr Lennon said rainfall was at it highest across Leinster: “In a lot of places it was three times higher than normal and in Casement Aerodrome [Baldonnel], and that set a record.”

The bizarre July weather patterns also recorded localised tornados and water spouts in some areas with 100km/m winds measured in Belmullet on the fifth of the month.

But after an erratic month, normality returned on Monday when the sun-drenched flood ended.

It was the first time in 49 days and since the week Bertie Ahern was re-elected Taoiseach, that more than 1mm of rain did not fall.

www.met.ie