Reports earlier this week that parts of Ireland had gone eight full days without seeing any sunshine will have confirmed for many that TS Eliot was wrong: the cruellest month is not April but February.
Perpetual gloom was particularly pronounced on the east coast, with Met Éireann describing it as “highly unusual” and blaming a dominant high-pressure system in northwestern Europe and easterly breezes. High pressure generally brings dry conditions, but it can also trap cloud and moisture, especially at this time of year, when winds are blowing over a cold North Sea.
Anyone who has spent time in central Europe will be aware that leaden skies can be the norm there in winter for weeks on end. Irish weather, by contrast, generally offers more variety; our forecasters’ preferred circumlocution of “unsettled” can cover a multitude. Even last week’s Stygian scenes on the east coast were matched by unusual levels of sunshine in some western counties.
Do Irish people pay too much attention to the weather? The introduction of colour-coded warnings has been criticised as a nanny-state over-reaction to weather conditions which previous generations would have taken in their stride. Defenders point to the effectiveness of the system in minimising fatalities during life-threatening events such as the recent Storm Éowyn.
Pamela Anderson: ‘I felt like life was really like death for me’
Dr Lydia Foy: ‘I never got an apology actually. It would be nice to get one’
From journalist to lecturer to Buddhist priest: ‘Everyone is obsessed with their own self’
Pantera live in Dublin review: Growling vocals, crowd surfing and mosh pits. This gig was worth the wait
Awareness of climate change has given rise to public hyper-sensitivity to “record-breaking” weather events. While it is important to keep track of these underlying trends and to plan for the challenges they will undoubtedly bring in the years ahead, there is a danger of over-dramatisation in the tendency of some media outlets to hype up every bad forecast in apocalyptic terms.
The clouds broke in the middle of the week, to be followed by a more typical Irish menu of sun, heavy rain, high winds, mild temperatures and yet more rain. Typical February weather, in other words, with the perceptible stretch in daylight hours offering the prospect of better times ahead. And at least the weather gives everyone something to talk about.
