Very Dry April despite Volcano, Wet Summer?

It has turned out to be a very dry April despite the inconvenience caused by the volcanic ash on the flights in and out of Ireland. The rest of the month should not see too much rain and in any case it will be another drier month than normal. Since that very wet November of Last year we have had a run of drier than normal months. Unfortunately this does not bode well for the Summer although we are promised a lot more dry spells this year. However if an Atlantic pattern develops it could get "stuck" again like the last 3 Summers because more and more we are seeing that in the modern weather the pattern that emerges at the start of the Summer tends to be the one that remains for the rest of the season. Just for the record here is a record of the past few months weather.

NOVEMBER - EXTREMELEY WET 200 TO 300MM

DECEMBER - DRY AND COLD 50 TO 70MM

JANUARY- DRY AND COLD 40 TO 70MM

FEBRUARY - DRY AND COLD 50 TO 80MM

MARCH - SLIGHTLY WETTER 60 TO 90MM

APRIL - EXTREMELY DRY AND MILD 30 TO 60MM

Normally in Ireland after a couple of dry months we get a deluge. I am just afraid that this could happen again this year. The Donegal postman promises dry weather and Ken Ring is also promising a few good weeks. I just think that as I heard one forecaster put it "whatever May brings the Summer will bring the opposite"(who can forget the cold wet May of 1995) But to end on an optimistic note I think that we will surely get one good month in the Summer.

April becomes Dry

This April is looking like a decent month after a wet and windy start. There will be a good deal of dry weather especially in the first half of the month but temperatures may rise to spark off some heavy April showers. What the milder temperatures will do though is to geet growth off the ground once again as the trees are currently showing very little signs of any growth. The temperature during this 7 to 10 day dry spell will peak at around 17 or 18c. Recently in the past 3 Bad Summer years April has been good and the High has moved South to allow a jet stream of wet and windy weather over us. At the moment the jet stream is to the North of Ireland so this will be kept updated.

Dry March in Sligo

Sligo had a drier than normal March with only 54mm of rain. This was in contrast to most parts of Ireland that saw over 100% of their normal and parts of Ulster that saw half of their rainfall total in the last 3 days of March

Crazy March 2010

Well not so much but the weather that ended the month was very stormy and snowy especially in the North. Overall March was slightly drier than normal but continued the colder than normal trend in temperatures. However for 29th/30th/31st March there was more rain than for the rest of the month in a lot of places in the North. Nearly 50mm of rain fell in some parts of Ulster falling as snow and giving a depth of 4inches in Cavan and Monaghan and drifts of up to 1 foot on the mountains..

Becoming Unsettled

The Long Range models are showing a much more unsettled outlook now for the rest of March and April with the Atlantic fronts meaning a reurn to daily rain or showers. Temperatures will climb somewhat from recent values and will be in Double Figures much of the time. Rainfall will be slightly above average and the overall temperatures will be around the seasonal average.

Irelands Long Range Weather Forecast

Stick that on your power cord!

The weather for the remainder of March in Sligo looks very dry and settled. So far 2010 has been quite a dry year compared to last year and it looks set to continue for the first month of the Springtime. Temperatures are remaining quite low though and this is having a major impact on both Grass and Flower growth.

Rainfall for the year in Ireland would usually be around 250mm to 300mm by the beginning of March in the Northwest of ireland and the Daffodils would be blooming. However this year has been very different. Daffodils are only at the start of their growth as of 7th March and look set to actaully bloom at what was once their normal date of 17th of March here in Ireland or St Patricks Day.

This years rainfall total is only just over 100mm and the total rainfall figure for the Winter Metreological months of December, January and February in Sligo was only 182mm after a November with rainfall of 354mm. This was caused by the Big Freeze in January 2010 and the blocking Anticyclone that came with it.

High pressure was over Iceland and Scandanavia for most of the Winter keeping Irelands Atlantic rainbelts well to the West and North in the Atlantic. At times these rainbelts went to the South of Ireland and over France and Spain causing storms and floods there that we would otherwise have had.

How long is this dry spell going to last it is quite hard to tell at the moment but there is an interuption on 11th March 2010 and whether this will signal a return to the Atlantic Pattern of weather in Ireland after the 3 Months of very dry weather it will be intersting to see but the overall long range weather forecasting picture for the month would seem to suggest that dry weather will be more in evidence in March than wet and that any rainfall periods will be short lived.