Author: Eric Gilbert

After a relatively calm day on Thursday with 10.5 hours of sunshine and an above average maximum 22.2C (+1.2C), the wind began to increase in strength around 23.00 Thursday evening. This was due to the very deep depression to the north west of the country named Storm Ellen by Met Eireann.

It has been another very mild night with a minimum of 15.9C being 4.3C above the 36-year average. A little before dawn on Friday, at 05.13, a maximum gust of 33mph was recorded.

Friday brought broken cloud and bright intervals to start the day with the wind very gusty and still rising in strength with the occasional light shower giving a rainfall total for the past day of 2.3mm.

Update on Friday at 18.00: maximum gust of 43mph at 13.55.

The rain on Wednesday started at 06.05 and continued all day easing off early evening with drizzle and the occasional shower. It has been dry since midnight. The total rainfall during the past twenty-four hours amounted to 15.9mm making it the wettest day since 25th July when 17.7mm was recorded.

Thanks to a south easterly air flow for most of the daylight hours and low cloud, it was a warm day with the thermometer slowly rising to 19.2C at 18.29 and hovering around that peak until midnight when it slowly fell away to 12.4C just after dawn. The peak temperature was 1.8C below the August average. It was the third sunless day in August.

Thursday morning was in direct contrast to Wednesday as we had continuous sunshine after sunrise, muted at first, but the sunshine recorder came alive at 07.16 set at 100w/sq.m. This lifted the thermometer to 16.1C at 08.00.

The barometric pressure, just before and after midnight, fell to its lowest since 5th June with a low of 996.6mb as Storm Ellen, named by Met Eireann, approached from the Atlantic. The peak gust on Wednesday was 26mph, the strongest gust since 5th July, but this is forecast to be superseded on Friday as the storm closes in over Ireland.

Tuesday brought us 6.5 hours of sunshine that brought very warm air on a brisk southerly breeze, gusting to 24mph, that lifted the temperature to a maximum of 24.3C, which was 3.3C above the 36-year average. It was a dry day with the UV level briefly peaking into the ‘Very High’ level, the first occurrence since 5th August.

A dry, very mild night followed with the thermometer not falling below 15.6 at 01.33 Wednesday, which was 4C above average.

Wednesday morning heralded a distinct change in our weather. Initially, before the sun rose above the horizon, there was an impressive sky scene with broken cloud illuminated by the sun just before sunrise and blue sky but by 06.05 cloud arrived that covered the entire sky and rain began to fall. This was the front edge of an extensive rain band that currently reaches from London westwards to the tip of Cornwall. There was just five or so minutes of very weak sunshine from the eastern sky before the sun was obliterated.

The barometric pressure has dropped to its lowest since 27th June with a current reading at 0800 Wednesday of 1003.5mb. This heralds a period of disturbed weather as today the Irish Meteorological Office announced that Storm Ellen was approaching Ireland from the Atlantic bringing very strong winds and heavy, extensive rain. Storm Ellen contains remnants of Tropical Storm Kyle after it crossed the Atlantic.

With the breeze still coming predominantly from the south on Monday the warm air mass lifted the maximum temperature to 24.1C being 3.1C above average during the 6.6 hours of strong sunshine. It was a breezier day with a maximum gust of 20mph, the strongest gust since the 12th.

A less cool night followed, in fact a mild night as the thermometer did not fall below 14.5C beginning to rise again at 06.18 on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning after dawn saw a bank of cloud or fog in the eastern horizon that initially obscured the sun but just before 07.00 the sun began to rise above the cloud and provide a sunny start to the day.

Rainfall for August stands at 10.3mm (average is 66.7mm) whereas the evaporation total is the equivalent of 48mm of rainfall.

Sunday morning saw bright intervals and occasional glimpses of the sun that lifted the temperature to 21.8C, just above average. There were a few spots of rain mid-afternoon but not measurable so recorded as a ‘trace’ that soon evaporated from hard surfaces.

Overnight the thermometer steadily fell away to record a minimum of 12.9C being 1.3C above average but the coolest night since the 7th. As a result of the humid air mass still prevalent and the lower temperature fog formed so that at 06.30 on Monday morning it was thick with visibility down to 100m. However, it was noticeable that after that time the fog began to slowly thin so that by 08.00 visibility had improved to 1,000m.

With lower temperatures by day and night the land has also been slowly cooling. The soil temperature at a depth of 5cm has fallen from a peak of 24.3C on the 12th to 17.1C on Monday, always recorded at 08.00.

The barometric pressure has been falling over the past three days and today with a reading of 1007.7mb at 08.00, is the lowest during August.