NOVEMBER WAS one of the wettest months ever recorded in Ireland. Valentia Observatory in Co Kerry, which has been keeping records since 1866, recorded the highest rainfall total ever for a month. A total of 360mm (15in) of rain fell there last month.
It is already the wettest year ever recorded at Valentia with a month to go and other weather stations are likely to post similar record levels of rainfall for the year.
Every weather station with the exception of Belmullet and Malin Head recorded rainfall totals of at least twice the average for November which is traditionally a wet month anyway.
Even Dublin airport, which recorded the lowest monthly rainfall total in the State of 171mm, still had nearly three times the normal amount of rain for the month.
The worst day was November 19th when 50mm fell in places, but the 1st, the 16th and the 29th were also extremely wet days.
The deluge is reflected in figures for some of the places worst affected by flooding.
Met Éireann has calculated that the 210mm of rain which fell in Athlone during the first 25-day period in November was a once-in-163-year event while the equivalent rainfall of 313.8mm in Galway was a once-in-122-year event and the 126.7mm which fell between November 15th and 20th in the city only happens roughly every 300 years.
Portumna, which has suffered severe flooding, had a once-in-176-year occurrence in the first 25 days of the month.
Temperatures and sunshine levels in November, though academic, were higher than normal everywhere giving rise to the suggestions that the warmer and wetter winters predicted by climate change experts are already happening.
A statement from Met Éireann said the extreme rainfall is an example of the variability of the Irish climate, but it noted that by mid-century there is likely to be increased rainfall in the west of Ireland and more frequent heavy falls of rain.
“Long-term climate models are not expected to provide year-to-year detail of rainfall but rather the long-term patterns, so it is too early to say if they are correct or not,” the statement said.
However, Met Éireann’s head of forecasting Ger Fleming said the recent floods following on from an extremely wet summer suggested that the climate was already changing.
“You’ve got to look back at three months and six months and that is an indication that this is not a problem of weather, it is a problem of climate.”
