Signs of improvement

All signs are there for an improvement in the weather from next wednesday 9th September. original forecasts pointed to a better picture from 5th September but a "fly in the ointment" Low Pressure intervened and is going to bring some more rain and winds for the next couple of days, although there will be some dry spells as well. Temperatures will be a rather cool 15 or 16c. After this things should pick up with the sun breaking through and rainfall becoming less plentiful and temperatures reaching the Low Twenties. How long this lasts is open to debate but long range forecasts are showing High Pressure to the South and West of Ireland for the Rest of September (and not 500 miles to the South like in July and August).

Summer ends in ... Floods!

After one of the wettest Summers on record, August sure went out with a bang. A whopping 36.7mm of rain fell in Sligo flooding many of the towns roads ("road flooded" signs were everywhere) while at the station in Johnstone Castle in Kilkenny there was 34.6mm. The figure of 36.7mm in Sligo was the wettest day recorded at the weathergossip weather station since its inception at the start of May. It also has made August a lot wetter overall than it had been in the provisional graphs for Summer that are printed on this blog.

September??

Throughout the whole of Summer it has been predicted here that September would bring a lot of dry warm weather. This may be still the case, however the first week will NOT bring any dry days to Britain or Ireland. Apart from some heat in the Southeast of England on 1st September the rest of the first week will be unsettled with wind and rain or showers. It is the period of 7th to 21st September that most forecasters are keeping their eyes peeled to. There are signs of a strong High Pressure Intensifying in these days but whether it breaks the Low Pressure stronghold over Ireland is difficult to tell because this pattern has become so established. There are 2 possibilities

1. High makes meandering apperances and rain interrupts occasionally
Confidence 50%

2. High Pressure becomes firmly established. Little or no Rain.
Confidence 20%

As usual weathergossip will continue to bring you updates...

Summer 2009 - Another Wet one

The final results of Summer 2009 are yet to come in but if we look at the results at my own weather station in sligo we can see it was a wet and mild Summer. Temperatures in Sligo were 1degrees above nrmal. Rainfall was 120per cent of average except in July when it was twice the normal and the wettest for 50 years in parts of the East and South. Winds were not such a strong feature except the number of breezy or windy days inceased in August as you would expect. Heatwaves were rare except for a 2 week spell at the start of June and a short period in July at start. The highest temperature of the Summer in Sligo was 24.7c the lowest was 9.0c. The highest wind gust was 43mph and the highest rainfall in a day was 28.4mm on 23rd August.

A Wet Weekend Gone!....and more to come!!?

Rainfall totals for the Western half of Ireland for 22/23rd August ranged from 25mm in the Northwest to 45mm in the Southwest. And we're not out of the woods just yet either. Some further heavy rain (30mm) is forecast for Wednesday and then some more wet windy weather on Friday 28th (10mm). After this the signs point to a slight improvement especially in the South. In Sligo there were 28.4mm of rain at the weathergossip weather station making it the wettest day here since the new station was set up in May, therefore Sunday 23rd August will probably go down as Sligo's wettest day of Summer 2009. The warmest day of 24.7c will now not be beaten unless something freak happens in September but long term weather forecasts are still predicting a mainly dry September for Ireland and the UK.

Hurricane Bill hits Ireland!!!!

Well its not that dramatic. But on August 26th the remains of Hurricane Bill will pass very close to the North Coast of Ireland with the potential for some strong winds here for a time. There may be gusts of 50 to 60mph. There will be a close eye kept on this to see how its track towards the US develops. It is forecast to sweep away from the East coast of the US and track past Newfoundland and toward our shores by the middle of next week.