Spring is here!

Irelands cold Winter is over at last and the long range weather for the coming few weeks is promising a lot of dry and bright weather. Rainfall figures are going to be low in all parts of Ireland but Munster and Leinster look set to see the best of the sunshine. Ulster and Connaught will always be more prone to some rain or drizzle during March but it doesnt look like falls of above 5mm will occur on many days of march at all. In fact low rainfall may be the feature of March 2011 and as well as that above average sunshine. There would then be probably only about 2 or 3 good months left in the year so we would hope that these would occur around the Summer and though it is far to early to say yet this Summer would mathematically be a good one since we get a good one in Ireland around every 8 years. 2003, 1995, 1987??

"Swan Lake", Sligo (Lough Gill)

2011 Weather so far .....



Fine Winters Day, Dublin



 So far 2011 has seen almost every type of weather. This of course is quite normal for the season of Winter. Snow has been rare now this year in comparison to the virtual snowmageddon in 2010 but this is due to a return of Atlantic conditions over the past few weeks.





This type of weather looks set to continue for the rest of February and probably into March also with just short sharp cold bursts. At the moent also it looks like the worst of the frosts are over until next Winter though dont write off a  few minus 2 or 3 nights but nothing prolonged like before.

Overall it is weathergossip's belief that 2011 will be quite a warm year and trends worldwide point to one of the warmest years worldwide on record. Just because we mention this does not mean it will be a "barbeque" Summer but there should be warm days in more plentiful supply than recent years.


Back to the present and it is the end of February and March that we now focus our long term weather predictions on. February looks like ending on a mixed if rather mild note. This looks like following into March with possibly some drier weather and a slight decrease in temperature. It seems as if March will bring another month of above average temperatures and usually when this is the case the rainfall is also above normal .


For further information about what the weather holds in store long range for Ireland why not check out http://www.weathergossip.com/2011weather.html

Heavy Rain in February

For the first time in a long time February in Ireland has been characterized by very heavy rain and strong winds. Totals of over 5 times the normal have occurred in the Western parts which is well over a months worth of rainfall and then some. No wonder the fields are flooded and the water table is so high. Well this wet weather is going to continue until at least the halfway point of the month but after Valentines Day it does look as though as well as love being in the air a change of weather will be too.

There are cold Easterlies trying to gather steam against the Western juggernaut of the Atlantic. These may well get held up in England but it seems that there will be low temperatures and frost by night even if the chances of snow falling still remain uncertain.

Rain Gone Forever?

Where is all of the rain gone? This is perhaps the most dangerous question you can ask in Ireland. What usually follows is deluges and floods. It looks like there will be a significant spell of wet weather in February for a time but whether it will bring a month of above average rainfall is open to question.

The months of November, December and January have been very dry compared to normal with rainfall of only about 60% of what is expected. The figure for Sligo is 281mm of rain at present. Normal for the 3 months here would be over 420mm.

High pressure remains in place until February and then it slowly slips away allowing the Atlantic to exert an influence. What it could mean with the rain is some milder Southwesterlies so at last you will be able to turn that heating down.

Blocking High

The end of January has seen a lot of very quite and cold and sometimes frosty weather. It has not been nearly as severe as what we experienced in December but the temperature has still dipped to minus 7c. The coming few weeks see a cold pattern continuing up to the first week of February before the Atlantic once more tries to make inroads but it is too early to say yet how this will pan out. Overall models signal a low overall rainfall pattern for February continuing the drier than normal Winter theme. Since November 1st there has been 280mm of rain in Sligo whereas in a normal mild 3 month period this figure would be closer to 400mm. There has also been 41 days of frost while in some Winters there was only 10 to 20 days.

Image from http://www.wetterzentrale.de/ shows the blocking high that is currently situated over us.

Return of the Atlantic Weather

After such a long period of cold icy weather it makes us forget that our weather is normally so Atlantic dominated. During much of the year 2009 there was rain non stop and it is only in the past year that things have been drier than normal. Of course we have had some wet months in the last 12 like September and July of course but overall we have enjoyed many dryier than normal months of late.

This would seem to suggest that the Atlantic weather is not going to last and this would appear to be backed up by some of the models that are predicting a return to some cold weather by January 20th. This depends on a couple of Low Pressures and the Jet Stream but at the moment a cold spell looks like happening here. However it is going to be nothing like December and will probably just bring ice and wintry showers like the North and West of Ireland saw on January 8th and 9th.