It was wetter than usual in January with the west of Ireland experiencing some heavy rainfall while Dublin Airport experienced its wettest hour in almost 70 years.
Shannon Airport had almost twice (195 per cent) the average monthly rainfall with 197.3mms. Newport, Co Mayo had 165 per cent of the average rainfall for the month. It rained heavily there for 11 days on the month.
It rained every day bar one at Cork Airport. At Dublin Airport on Wednesday, January 24th, 31mms (more than an inch of rain) fell in a single hour, an event which happens on average only once every 67.8 years. The highest daily total of rainfall fell at Valentia Observatory on January 12th where the station recorded 38.8 mms.
Temperatures in January were milder than normal for the majority of weather stations which may come as a surprise when one considers the cold spell there has been of late.
The highest temperature recorded during the month was 13.8 degrees at Roches Point, Co Cork on January 27th. The lowest temperature was minus 6.8 degrees at Athenry, Co Galway on January 8th.
The month and year began with Storm Eleanor. The highest wind speed of the month was recorded at Knock Airport, Co Mayo, on January 2nd. It recorded a gust of 84 knots (155.6 km/h) while the month’s highest 10-minute mean wind speed was 58 knots (107.4 km/h).
The forecast is for a spell of colder weather over the weekend and into next week.
Temperatures will fall to freezing on Saturday night. Sunday will be a cold day and night and frost will be a feature over the coming days.
Met Éireann forecaster Vincent O'Shea says it will be "notably colder and we will see wintry showers arise in places."
He said there is a possibility of snow on high grounds in parts of the north and north-west on Monday and Tuesday.
The further outlook to midweek is for a continued cold spell with temperatures well below freezing at night. Winds will be mainly light to moderate northwesterly and showers will mostly affect coasts, with a more persistent spell of rain later in the week.