A month of records with unseasonably high temperatures

OCTOBER ENDED as it began with balmy temperatures more seasonal to summer than late autumn.

The temperature reached 18 degrees at 11pm on Sunday, most likely a record for an October night, according to Met Éireann, in a month that also broke rainfall records. As well as the unusually high temperatures and concentrated spells of rainfall, October also brought strong winds around the country.

The first two weeks of the month were extremely mild at an average of 3 to 4 degrees above normal. Temperatures fell back towards the middle of the month, but picked up again last weekend. Everywhere is likely to be above normal when the official figures are released today.

Daytime temperatures on Sunday reached 17.4 degrees at Dublin airport before falling back to 13 degrees.

A combination of southerly winds and cloud cover pushed the temperatures up.

“It’s very unusual, but it can happen with a southerly breeze,” said Met Éireann forecaster Pat Clarke. “You get a foam effect where temperatures rise a bit higher than it does 10 miles down the road.”

The hottest day of the month was also recorded at Dublin airport on October 3rd with a temperature reading of 20.4 degrees, the highest October temperature since 1995.

The highest air temperature was recorded in the Phoenix Park on the same day when 21.1 degrees was recorded, the highest October temperature in 20 years.

It was also an exceptionally wet month, but much of that rain was concentrated in a tumultuous four-day period last week which culminated in widespread flooding.

The wettest day was recorded at Casement Aerodrome on October 24th, when 82mm fell in 24 hours, the highest October rainfall since records began there in 1954.

The east of the country had twice the normal monthly rainfall.

In Connacht, rainfall was one and a half times higher than normal as it was on Valentia Island, Co Kerry, traditionally the wettest weather station in the country.

However, Cork airport had just 86mm of rain, well below the average of 120mm.

Met Éireann’s station at Knock airport recorded the highest monthly rainfall total of 192mm. The lowest total for the month was on Sherkin Island in west Cork which recorded 56mm – the driest October since 2003.

“It is the changeover from autumn to winter and it can be cold and frosty, but it was exceptionally mild this year,” said Mr Clarke.