In this publication, you can find out what the climate is in Ireland, as well as find out some interesting facts related to the weather conditions of the island.
General data and geography of the island
One of the largest islands in the British archipelago is Ireland. It is also the third largest in Europe after the islands of Great Britain and Iceland. The island is an independent state of the Republic of Ireland or the Republic of Ireland (occupies 4/5 of the territory) and Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK.
The island is washed by the Irish Sea, which shares it with Britain, as well as the North Strait and St George's Strait. In the center is a lowland plain surrounded by mountains. The highest point is Mount Carrantuil, whose height is 1041 meters. Also in Northern Ireland there is Mount Slive-Donard with a height of 850 meters. Due to the large amount of precipitation and the lack of developed runoff, the plain part is characterized by the presence of swamps.
Climate characteristic
The climate in Ireland is mild, humid, oceanically temperate. Winter is mild and warm enough, summer is relatively hot. Warm westerly and southwesterly winds prevail, which are influenced by the powerful Gulf Stream. The weather is unstable and can be quite variable for even one day. Rain can be short and repeated several times or heavy rain. About two thousand millimeters of precipitation falls annually.
Since the climate in Ireland is quite mild, the island is year-round under green cover. Because of this, he was nicknamed the Emerald Isle.
On the whole island, temperature differences are almost invisible, throughout the year it ranges from +9 to +20, the average temperature is +14 degrees. The division into seasons is conditional. Since both summer and winter are warm in Ireland, the year consists of two seasons.
Temperature mode
Throughout the year, a positive temperature regime (that is, above zero) is maintained. Below is the monthly climate of Ireland.
In winter (December, January, February) the temperature rises no higher than eight degrees of heat. Sometimes there can be frosts, but usually they are not lower than five degrees of frost, which occur only at night. The coldest month is January. Snow is extremely rare.
Showers are frequent in the spring, which are quickly replaced by the sun. In March, the air warms up to ten degrees of heat during the day, and at night it drops again to three. In April it gets even warmer - +12, at night +4 degrees. May pleases the Irish, the temperature rises to sixteen degrees above zero during the day and four at night.
The climate in Ireland is such that the summer is not hot, also variable, the sun can dramatically change into cloud and rain. The warmest month is July. The temperature rises to twenty degrees of heat, and sometimes to +25. At night it decreases to +10 degrees. In June, daily indicators are seventeen degrees, in July - +20 ... + 22, in August - nineteen degrees.
By autumn, indicators are declining, in September they amount to seventeen degrees of heat, at night +10. In October, fourteen degrees above zero during the day, eight at night. And by November, reduced in the daytime to +10, at night to +4.
Northern Ireland
In addition to the Republic of Ireland, the island has a United Kingdom region. Below we consider the climate of Northern Ireland, which is only slightly different from the climate of the Republic. It is also temperate oceanic. But most of the days of the year it rains, the pressure is low, the sun rarely breaks through low clouds. Most of the precipitation falls on this part of the island. Strong winds blow, storms are often on the coast.
The temperature regime is practically no different from the Republic. Only in winter, in January and late February, the temperature drops to almost zero. July is also considered the warmest month.
Interesting Facts
Strong winds blow on the coast of the island; the highest speed was recorded in the city of Kilkil in Northern Ireland. It was 327 km / h. Also in 1995, a tornado passed at a speed of 320 km / h near the capital of Dublin, Ireland . In the winter of 2014, a strong wind was also recorded (150 km / h), on December 26, 1998, wind speed varied from 110 km / h to 170 km / h.
Fogs are also frequent in Ireland, especially in the mountains, as well as in the center of the island. They appear in the morning when atmospheric pressure is high.
The climate in Ireland is rather unpredictable. So, more than 150 years ago, the lowest winter temperatures of -19 degrees were recorded. That was in 1881 in Tyrone. And the high temperature itself was recorded in June 1887 in Kilkenny. She was +33 degrees. In 2010, the coldest weather of the last fifty years was recorded. The thermometer column dropped to -10 degrees, in the coldest areas almost -19.
It was said above that in Ireland there are two seasons - winter and summer. So the summer begins to be calculated from the first of May, and the winter - from the first of November.
In winter, snow rarely appears in these places. However, a hundred years ago a record amount of snow fell, in some areas the snow cover reached three meters.