Summer Review so far 2010

So far Summer of 2010 has been quite mixed . After a quite dry start in May and June things have quickly gone downhill for the month of July. However things are looking to improve now for at least 10 days as an Azores High attemps to press some heat but how far North this comes over Ireland is open to debate at present. Some of the Long Range models show it coming right over Ireland or somewhere to the East and if this happens temperatures will respond and shoot upwards and we could see them in the upper twenties for the first time this month.

One thing is for certain is that there will be a lot of warm or very warm weather next week with sunny spells most prominant in the South and East.

Rainfall for the Summer is running in the High category once more this year due to the very wet conditions that have prevailed so far in July. The monthly totals are running in the range 150% to 200% with the West of the country worst affected. Though the June figure was a lot lower than average and it was the driest June in Malin Head for 71 years, the fact that it has been such a wet month in July has brough Summer rainfall figures well above normal. This wet July pattern has been in evidence for the past 4 Julys now but it does look like the rainfall figures will drop somewhat for August and weathergossip would seem to favour a normal rainfall for this month.

Temperatures the Summer in Ireland have tended to be above normal despite the weather not always being on the Sunny side. In June it was quite warm and sunny, in fact the temperature was nearly 2c warmer than normal in some places. The normal average temperature for June in Ireland would be between 12 and 13c but in 2010 it was between 14 and 15c. July has been slightly warmer than average with an average of 14.9c the normal it has been 15.3c so far this July and this figure is going to rise to about 15.6c by the end of the month. Overall the temperature will show a warmer than average Summer by the end of August its the Sunshine that will confirm just where Summer 2010 will lie in the Ireland Summer hall of fame.

Sunshine was way above average in some parts of Ireland in June and was above average everywhere. The percentage above normal ranged from 120% to about 160%. This gave people the impression that we were in for a scorcher of a Summer this year. Unfortunately the first part of July has been littered with some very heavy rain episodes and some thunder and lightning thrown into the mix also. The sunshine figure for Ireland for July up to halfway was 80% of normal in most places and this figure is expected to rise a few percentages in the coming few days to the end of the month. This will probably mean that the month of July will end with near normal sunshine.So despite all the rain we are having a pretty sunny Summer in 2010.

Becoming Drier in next few weeks

After quite a wet period of weather the general pattern in the coming few weeks will be for drier than normal weather everywhere especially in the East and South. The West and North should still have some rain at times but it wont be at the same intensity as it was for the first couple of weeks of JUly when over 600% of the normal rainfall was recrded in some parts of Co Mayo. Generally it will be dry and warm at times too but there will be a few low pressure systems that will pass by Ireland that will be bringing cloud and rain to the Northern Half. The temperatures for the coming few weeks look likely to be in the range 17 to 21c but they will be up to 23 or 24c in any prolonged sunshine and below 17c if it rains for a sustained period of time.