Watch: Flooding in Killarney National Park leaves trails inaccessible 

Drone footage of flooding at Killarney National Park. Picture: Valerie O'Sullivan

October was a very wet month with several instances of flooding and thunderstorm activity throughout.

Much of this showery, stormy weather impacted the south and west of the country.

Drone footage of Killarney National Park in Kerry shows just how drastic the effects of such weather activity can be.

Sections of a number of popular walking trails in the park are impassable following heavy rainfall during the week.

 

The monthly rainfall total recorded at Valentia Observatory in Kerry was 255.9mm. This is 144% of its long-term average.

Met Éireann recorded 10 'very wet' days in Kerry during October compared to just two days at Dublin Airport.

During the second half of the month, a trough of low pressure stalled to the southwest of the country bringing with it numerous active weather fronts and surface low-pressure systems.

This caused widespread spells of heavy and often thundery rain and showers.

Active weather fronts brought further heavy rain on October 15 and 16 leading to some flooding in the south. Similar fronts led to widespread rain on October 22, 23, 18, and 31.

On October 19, the arrival of Storm Armand saw a very warm and moist air mass settle over the south and east which brought some very active thunderstorm activity and heavy rain.

Rainfall totals all around the country were above their average with seven stations recording their wettest October on record.

WHAT IS...

Climate Change

Climate change is caused by certain gases in the upper atmosphere trapping heat that would usually bounce off the Earth into space.

The proportion of these warming gases in the atmosphere has been increasing since the Industrial Revolution, but especially since the 1950s.

Carbon dioxide and methane are the most powerful of the warming gases.

The excess amount of these gases is caused by burning fossil fuels and the farming of animals.

The gases cause the Earth’s surface temperature to rise, and trap more energy in weather systems.

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