June was one of wettest on record

Met Éireann has confirmed what we all suspected - it was one of the wettest months of June on record.

And the month ended on the same note, with heavy rain in many places over the weekend. More than ½ an inch (12.5mm) of rain was recorded on Saturday at Knock airport in Co Mayo and at Valencia in Co Kerry.

However, the western seaboard, which traditionally gets the most rain, was spared the worst deluges which affected the east and south of the country.

It was the wettest June since records began in Kilkenny which recorded 155mm (6½in of rain), three times the normal for this time of year.

It was also the wettest June at Roches Point in Cork Harbour which recorded 154mm of rain, breaking a 25-year record.

The wettest place in the Republic, though, was the Phoenix Park in Dublin which recorded 172mm (nearly 7in) of rain, making it the second wettest June there since records began there more than 120 years ago.

A whole month's average rainfall for June was recorded on Friday, June 22nd, when there was widespread flooding in the Rathfarnham area of south Dublin.

Dublin airport, Cork airport and Rosslare all recorded more than double the normal amount of rainfall for the month. However, rainfall amounts were only just above average in weather stations at Belmullet, Malin Head and Clones.

Met Éireann spokesman Michael McAuliffe said that, though it was exceptionally wet in some places, the weather itself was not exceptional. Much of the rainfall was accounted for by torrential rain brought on by thundery showers which fell mostly in the east of the country.

"It's our climate. We have changeable weather. You can get particularly wet weather at all times. There was no particular day that broke any individual records," he said.

"Heavy, thundery showers tend to be hit and miss. While Phoenix Park got 50mm in one day, Baldonnel only got half that.

"In each case it was a very wet day but, if you have that much variation over a small distance, you end up getting a much greater variation over larger distances".

Despite the wet weather, it was warmer than usual. Most weather stations reported higher than normal temperatures for the 15th month in a row.

Belmullet, where temperatures were 2 degrees above normal, recorded its warmest June in more than 50 years.

Showery weather is set to continue into the middle of next week and there is a possibility of very wet and windy weather on Thursday as an Atlantic depression tracks over, or close to, Ireland.