RAINFALL DURING July was heavier than normal in most areas, with extremely heavy downpours in parts of Limerick and Cork on the last day of the month, leading to widespread flooding.
Cork was the wettest part of the country during the month, with the highest July rainfall since 1975 recorded at Cork airport. The combined total for rainfall recorded there for June and July was more than twice the normal rainfall for those months. The station at Johnstown Castle, Co Wexford, had similar rainfall amounts.
"Rainfall totals for the month were above normal at all stations except Belmullet (Co Mayo) and were more than twice the July normal at stations in the east and south," according to Met Éireann's monthly weather summary.
In what they described as "a dull month generally", values were down on the normal figures for July, particularly in the southwest.
The highest average temperature recorded was 15.7 degrees at Shannon airport, which also recorded the warmest day of the month - 25.2 degrees on July 24th.
The lowest July air temperature since the early 1970s was at Mullingar, where it was 3.6 degrees on July 5th. This was part of a trend which saw temperatures lower in the first half of the month and rising during the second half.
The greatest level of sunshine was in the east, with Dublin airport enjoying 156 hours while the lowest level of rainfall was recorded at Belmullet, where just 54mm fell during the month.
Perhaps the best place to have spent July was in the west, with Belmullet also recording high levels of sunshine and above average temperatures.
Though Met Éireann insisted yesterday that a wet summer was an integral part of the Irish climate, the significance of the bad weather during July was not lost on the tourism industry.
Rural tourism has struggled to stave off the effects of the weather on top of other factors, with some operators saying visitor numbers are down between 10 and 15 per cent so far this year.
Maria Heneghan, a rural tourism specialist with Teagasc in Athenry, Co Galway, acknowledged that bad weather has some effect on tourism.
Ireland needs to acknowledge that it gets a lot of rain and work around that, she added.
American tourists think the climate is very nice, she said, as it gives them a break from the intense heat and dryness that they are used to at home.
"Instead of apologising for the weather I think it is something we need to embrace and see it as being as much part of the authentic Irish experience," she said.
Fewer American golfers are coming to Kerry this year, said Gerry O'Grady of Killarney Chamber of Commerce. He was not sure to what extent weather could be blamed.
"There are a number of things coming together this year with the general economic recession and in the case of American tourists you have the cost of fuel and the fuel surcharge . . . ," he said.
Maire Gardiner, manager of Fáilte Ireland in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, said that the weather is "definitely a factor" in discouraging tourism and said that anecdotal reports suggested tourism was down in certain areas.
Minister for Tourism Martin Cullen's comments that tourism is up by 4 per cent "would not be the experience in some of the regions", said Ms Gardiner.
Families seek hotels with facilities such as swimming pools in case of bad weather, she said. Smaller hotels can't provide these facilities, making it harder for them to attract visitors when it rains, she added.