May will be Cool and Unsettled

Unsettled outlook for May

UPDATE: The weather looks set to warm up May 21st to the end of the month with some sunshine and only showery rain in the West. Temperatures of 18 to 24c by the end of the month are possible after 20 days of freezing cold weather for Ireland.


It not looking great for May this year either with a lot of cool and unsettled weather on the way for Ireland for much of the month. Perhaps only at the end will we see anything resembling Summer-like weather. Temperatures will be disappointing too and will be in the mid-teens at best, possibly a little higher towards the end of the month.


As regards rainfall perhaps the East is going to start off with the high rainfall amounts but after the first few days all parts will get some rain from time to time and later on the North and West will get their fair share too. The weather has been a lot drier in the North and West of Ireland in recent weeks than it was during the Winter but the temperatures are 2c below what they should be at for the time of year.


Sunshine for May will start off above normal too but will probably fall off as the month goes on and low pressures visit our shores once more. Will it be as windy as the tree burning May of 2011, well it does not look   like wind will be a major issue this year so that's perhaps the one good thing.


Not a very cheerful pictures folks so perhaps if you are booking a holiday to Ireland this Summer I would suggest maybe giving June a look instead.

April will be Cool and Showery

Just like any ordinary April it will be quite cool and showery for the month in 2012. Some dry days can be expected too especially in the South and East but with a Northerly wind source a lot of the time the temperatures will not respond very well to any sunshine. This could possibly be the first Month of 2012 that will have a mean temperature below Normal after 3 mild months in a row. A far cry from 22c in March.

Sunshine and Showers for April

For the Easter Weekend the weather wont start off too bad, just cloudy and dry with some light rain in the North and temperatures of 10 to 13c but as the weekend goes on the weather gets worse and by the end of the Easter Im afraid it will be quite wet. 


Currently there has been just 42mm of rain in Sligo since the start of April, it is very possible that be the end of next week that this figure will be above 50 or 60mm. The weather will be quite cool too especially in the first half of April resulting in the odd wintry outbreak and some snow over the high hills.

Showers will be caused at times by the convection of the heat of the sun during the day on cold land surfaces resulting in some thundery showers too and some areas could see a lot more in the way of rain than others. Around the middle of April it looks like it will get stormy for a time before a return to sunshine and blustery showers. At the end of the month then it looks like High Pressure will try and push in but there will still be some isolated showers at times.

Rest of March Dry

March will see little or no rain for the remainder of the month as High Pressure takes hold over Ireland. With temperatures rising too the water levels will be quite low. Temperatures are expected to get up to 18c in the West of Ireland while the East will be a cooler 12 or 13c due to an onshore breeze. Further into the month High pressure still remains dominant but the temperatures will drop back to between 9 and 13c.

2012 has been mild mild mild

What a mild month and year it has been so far in Ireland. The weather is very gloomy though isnt it and there hasnt been a lot of sun at all in some Atlantic areas with just cloudy misty days. Over St Patricks weekend there will be a little more variety in the weather with some cooler and unsettled weather coming in but this will bring more in the way of rain or showers of course. 


Temperatures for 2012 are nearly 2c above normal for the country as a whole despite the fact that many parts of Europe had such a cold February, Ireland largely escaped this and saw a lot of mild weather. The weekend will see one or two frosts but as the month of March goes on it looks like the weather will get mild and stay that way for most of the rest of the month.

Mild March

Cloudy but mild March

March has turned out to be very mild hasnt it? In fact most of 2012 has been mild in Ireland apart from one or two very brief cold spells and you could count on two hands the number of severe frosts that we have experienced. The weather is set to get cool for the Saint Patricks Day festivities but after that the Southwesterlies will return again with their mild weather and this time temperatures could climb up to 17 or 18c. This all depends on the amounts of sunshine and as we have seen so far in 2012 this has been scarce.

Why was Winter so Mild?

Just why was this Winter so mild in Ireland a lot of people are asking?

• High Pressure Remained to the South bringing Southwesterlies
• Low Pressure was much further North than 2010
• Increased cloud cover at night due to moist airflow
• Warm Sea Temperatures
• Winds coming in from the Atlantic
• Siberian Air just failing to reach our shores
• Windy weather at times prevented frost
• Lack of mobility at times meant prolonged mild spells
• Lack of Cold Weather in Europe until February

Sunny days were rare this Winter in Ireland