Ireland has had its fifth successive season where temperatures have been above average everywhere.
June, July and August were warm everywhere with 11 Met Éireann weather stations breaking the record for their highest ever recorded temperatures.
Met Éireann climatologist Paul Moore said the last season where temperatures were lower than the seasonal average was the spring of 2021.
He explained: “There is a greater probability that a season or month will have above average mean temperatures due to climate change.
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“However, to have five consecutive seasons where every synoptic station records above average mean temperatures is unusual, as normally you would expect more variability, where certain weather patterns lead to below average temperatures occasionally, even in a warming overall trend.”
The all time highest temperatures for July and August were broken. The 33.1 degrees at the Phoenix Park on July 19th was the second highest temperature recorded in Ireland and only 0.2 of a degree lower than the all-time record recorded in Kilkenny on June 26th, 1887.
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This was followed by the highest temperature ever recorded in August. The weather station at Oak Park in Co Carlow recorded 31.7 degrees on August 12th beating the previous record of 31.5 degrees recorded at the same station on August 2nd, 1995.
Though the official statistics for the summer of 2022 will not be released until Monday, it is clear that many places had a very warm and dry summer. Cork Airport recorded higher than average temperatures for June, July and August. The average temperature in August of 17.1 degrees is more than two degrees higher than the monthly average which is 15.0 degrees.
Oak Park recorded an average temperature of 17.2 degrees in July which is 1.6 degrees above the monthly average.
Evidence of near drought-like conditions is apparent in rainfall totals for the summer. Cork Airport had just 28.1mms in July and 14.2mms in August compared to the monthly averages are 78.8 mms and 96.8mms respectively. Roches Point had just 34mms of rain in July and August.
Roches Point which is in West Cork received just 6.3mm of rain between August 14th and 23rd. Irish Water’s acting head of asset operation Margaret Attridge described water levels in West Cork as having dropped to “historic lows” with rainfall totals for each month since November lower than average with the exception of June.
West Cork is now being subject to a hosepipe ban in place because of a long period of dry weather.
The water conservation order has been put in place across 30 local water supplies in the area from midnight on Monday.
The ban prohibits people using their garden hose to wash their car, water their garden or potted plants, or fill a paddling pool.
In a statement, the national water utility said “this has impacted water resources as they need time to replenish, and it will take six to eight weeks of rainfall to do that”.
In Wicklow Irish Water engineers are trying to restore water supply to impacted customers in Kirikee near Greystones.
A householder left a hosepipe running for a long period of time and depleted water in the nearby reservoir where levels were already low because of the dry weather.
Engineers hope to have the water levels restored by 4pm on Thursday.
