THE NEWCASTLEWEST area of Co Limerick endured the equivalent of almost four weeks’ rain between 7pm and midnight on Thursday.
Provisional figures taken from a rain gauge at Castlemahon, just a mile from Newcastlewest, indicate that over 90mm of rain fell during a continuous downpour over those five hours, while the average for the previous four weeks was 23mm.
A spokesman for Met Éireann said that it was an “exceptional” occurrence more associated with tropical climates and that the figures speak for themselves in showing how unusual the rainfall was.