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Swimmers enjoy the sun at Sandycove Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland
Good News

Most of Ireland basks in warmest April on record

Nearly all rainfall in April fell at the start of the month – and most of the country has been enjoying long hours of sunshine since.

MET EIREANN HAS reported that last month was the warmest April on record at most weather stations in Ireland.

Malin Head and Valentia Observatory recorded it as their warmest April in over a century of record-taking. At Malin Head, a high of 20.8 degrees Celsius was recorded on 22 April – their highest ever since the station opened. The period between 20 and 22 April and on 10 April had the highest average temperatures.

Heat-seekers in the east of the country were less lucky – Met Eireann notes that it wasn’t as warm there as the April of 2007. Yet they got their sunshine quota – the highest monthly sunshine totals were recorded in the east. Dublin Airport and Casement Aerodrome both had their sunniest April day on record on 28 April. Belmullet had 14.1 hours of sunshine on 29 April – that is equal to the highest ever number of hours recorded in April.

The number of ground frosts recorded around the country was about average for the time of year – between three and 14 in the course of the month – but there was very little in evidence near Atlantic coastal areas.

Rainfall totals were below average – somewhere between 40 and 90 per cent below average, in fact – and nearly all of what did fall, fell in the first half of the month.

And now for some pretty graphs to make you smile…


And check out the contrast between April 2011 and the percentage difference from 1961-1990 monthly normals:

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