BELMULLET WAS the best place for sunshine this spring and Cork the worst, according to the March-May weather statistics released by Met Éireann yesterday.
Belmullet had 533.4 hours of sunshine, while Cork had only 443.9 during its dullest spring since 2006.
The warmest day of the spring was recorded at Shannon Airport on May 25th when the temperature reached 27.8 degrees. The following day’s 15.6 hours of sunshine at Shannon was the sunniest day of the Irish spring, and equalled the spring sunshine record at Shannon since the opening of the station in 1938.
The second-highest temperature recorded was in Claremorris at 25.6 degrees.
Rainfall totals were below normal for spring, except at some stations along the east coast. March and May had below average rainfall nearly everywhere, with April having wet conditions nearly everywhere except in the north.
Despite above average spring sunshine in most parts, weather stations in the south and east reported it as the dullest spring in more than six years.
Cold weather at the start of May brought the lowest recorded temperatures for the month in a number of years, especially along the east coast. Lowest minimum temperatures reported in parts of the Dublin area on May 6th were below minus 3 degrees, the lowest in 48 years for the same period.
Cork Airport and Valentia observatory reported their driest springs since 2000 and 1997 respectively, while Malin Head in the northwest reported its driest spring since 2001. Dublin stations received up to 115 per cent of their long-term averages for rainfall.
The spring’s highest daily fall of 29.7mm was recorded on May 1st at Casement Aerodrome, southwest of Dublin, the highest spring fall at the station since 2002.