Rain, rain, rain - Warning from the future?

SO, how was it for you? Was your weekend a washout? Wellies and sandbags to try and stave off the flash floods, extraordinary rain and this never-ending summer of clouds, showers, winds and occasional floods? Did you get caught in the flooding on the M50?

Met Éireann has said that in the 24 hours from midnight on Friday, 76.2mm of rain fell at Dublin Airport, a record for August.

Though this rainfall is exceptional, the damage and chaos it caused seems completely disproportionate. It was like what happens when we get a decent fall of snow: the whole country closes down. Is it that we are just not used to coping with these eventualities, or is it that our infrastructure is designed to cope with a climate from a different time?