Birr, Co Offaly was the place to be last year for the warmest weather while Kilkenny was the coolest.
Overall weather patterns show it was warmer and sunnier than normal last year, but not as warm as 2003. And worldwide, 2004 was the fourth warmest year since 1880 when reliable records began.
Birr hit the top temperature of 27 degrees over the August bank holiday weekend while average temperatures rose to more than 25 degrees that weekend, according to the summary of the weather for last year from Met Éireann's climatology and observations division.
However, Birr also had the lowest annual total number of hours of sunshine at 1,242 while Rosslare, Co Wexford had the highest total with 1,781 hours. Mullingar, Co Westmeath recorded the greatest increase in sunshine levels with 119 per cent of normal levels. Kilkenny had sunshine levels of 116 per cent of normal but it also recorded the lowest air temperature of -7.7 degrees and ground temperature of -15.60 degrees on January 29th, the lowest temperatures there for 20 years.
Rainfall was close to normal for the year and the Met Éireann report shows it varied from 92 per cent of average values in Clones, Co Monaghan and Cork Airport, to 108 per cent of normal levels at Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel, Co Dublin and Malin Head, Co Donegal. As expected, the south-east of the country had the lowest amount of rainfall with around 120 wet days compared to more than 200 wet days in the northwest region.
However the south and south-east suffered significant flooding when the heaviest rainfalls of the year occurred in the second half of October.
Up to six inches of rain were recorded over the 48-hour period on the 27th/28th of that month.
Annual mean temperatures for last year were above the 1961-1990 normal, for the 11th successive year. They ranged between 10 degrees and 11 degrees at most stations, "between half a degree and one degree higher than normal generally", according to the report.
The temperature in Belmullet, Co Mayo was 1.1 degree above normal as was Rosslare, while a number of other places including Claremorris, Co Mayo, Mullingar, and Shannon, Co Clare, had temperature increases of 0.6 to 0.8 degrees above normal. "February and March were exceptionally sunny months and were the sunniest on record in places," the report says.
Preliminary figures from the World Meteorological Organisation show the average global temperature is expected to be 0.31 degrees above the 1880-2003 long-term mean, making 2004 the fourth warmest year since 1880.
