Warmest year since the 1880s

It was a year distinguished by an atrocious summer, but 2007 as a whole may in fact turn out to be one of the warmest years. Provisional figures from Met Éireann reveal that it was the warmest year at Malin Head and Valentia which have compiled records since the 1880s.

The average temperature at Malin Head at 10.7 degrees surpassed the record which was only broken last year. Valentia recorded an average temperature of 11.7 degrees, 1.3 degrees above the norm.

Belmullet, Rosslare and Kilkenny, where records stretch back to the 1950s, also had a second consecutive year of highest ever average temperatures. Birr had its warmest years since 1949.

Overall, average temperatures were at least 1 degree higher than normal with July being the only month where temperatures were lower than normal. However, the highest temperature of the year was a less than spectacular 25.6 degrees recorded at Casement Aerodrome on June 11th.

The figures confirm a trend this century that the effects of global warming are already becoming apparent.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is predicting that 2007 will be the fifth warmest year on record globally. The 10 warmest years on record have all occurred since 1997.

According to Dr John Sweeney of the Irish Climate Analysis and Research Unit (Icarus) at NUI Maynooth, the effects are more pronounced in Ireland than other countries because of the latitude and proximity to the ocean.

He said: "Ireland has been warming by 0.4 degrees per decade, three times the global average, and these figures confirm that trend.

"Ireland has tended in the past to be a slower responder to change because of the effects of the Atlantic which takes longer to warm up.

"The Atlantic has been warming up considerably over the last number of decades and land temperatures are now reflecting that."

Sunshine levels were about 10 per cent higher than normal following a year in which the spring and autumn were abnormally sunny, but the summer was a cloudy washout except in Malin Head and Belmullet, which escaped the worst of the summer weather, and had the highest sunshine totals since 1959.

Dublin had its wettest summer in more than 50 years, according to figures for Baldonnel, which showed that rainfall levels were 232 per cent higher than normal for the months of June, July and August - the highest since records began there in 1954.

However, rainfall figures for Baldonnel were only 11 per cent above average for the year because of the dry spring and autumn.

Rainfall was about average elsewhere though Cork Airport (84 per cent of normal) and Rosslare (83 per cent of normal) had an exceptionally dry year.