From fine and bright to wet, cold and gloom

A year that started fine and bright descended into cold, wet gloom, with autumn 2000 seeing some of the highest rainfalls on record.

"The biggest weather event of the year had to be the autumn flooding," said Mr Peter Lennon, a senior meteorological officer with Met Eireann. "There were a couple of heavy falls on the 5th and 6th of November which really hit the east coast."

The highest rainfall was recorded in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, on November 5th, when 76.2 mm of rain fell. This, Mr Lennon said, was the highest rainfall for November "in a century and a half".

It was the west, however, which suffered the worst of the wet weather in the autumn. The Valentia Observatory, Co Kerry, recorded the wettest autumn since 1892.

Mr Lennon said the severity of the floods was due to the large number of rainy days from mid-September on. "It rained almost continuously for a three to four-month period. There was very little heat for evaporation and so the ground remained saturated and prone to further flooding."

This autumn, the weather patterns "got into a routine" of wet and windy weather. Forming a routine was "not unusual", he said, but it was exceptional to rain without respite for so long.

From mid-September to mid-December, the rainfall was above normal almost everywhere, with Valentia and Belmullet, Co Mayo, achieving figures of more than 20 per cent above normal. The weather station at Cork Airport was the only place to report below average rainfall this autumn. It was also 10 per cent below normal for the year.

The autumn rains may have washed away the memories of the first half of the year but, said Mr Lennon, the earlier months were quite dry. "Rainfall for the first six months of the year, from January to June, was particularly low."

January was dry and mild, as was March. April was wet in the north and east and was unusually cold. An air temperature of 3.5 was recorded in Dublin Airport on April 5th - the coldest temperature recorded outside Dec ember this year.

Last year was slightly warmer than average with temperatures ranging from 0.3 above normal at Valentia to 1 above normal at Shannon Airport. May was sunny everywhere "but was not remarkably hot". June, July and August were warmer with temperatures of 27 achieved in June. July and August, however, were quite showery, with heavy thunderstorms, particularly in August.

Although December was generally mild, temperatures have dropped since Christmas Day. December 27th was the coldest night of the year recorded at most stations, with temperatures of less than 5 recorded in Mullingar, Co Westmeath; Clones, Co Monaghan; Kilkenny, and Birr, Co Offaly.