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File image (not of Tipperary, obviously) Shutterstock/Mykola Mazuryk
Gurteen Desert
Met Éireann says there was an "absolute drought" in Tipperary last month
At Cork Airport, a third of the month’s rainfall occurred on 26 March with 25.5mm falling.
MARCH WAS DRIER than average across the country, with one weather station in Tipperary reporting an absolute drought.
The Gurteen station had a period of 15 or more days with less than 0.2mm of rainfall.
Overall, Met Éireann’s review of the month said that it was dry, cold and sunny.
The fine weather from 9 March to 23 March was responsible for below average rainfall, but no long-term records were broken.
At Cork Airport, a third of the month’s rainfall occurred on 26 March with 25.5mm falling.
Most temperatures, however, were also down. While mean temperature is usually around 8.5 degrees Celsius, it dipped to 7.6 degrees at Sherkin Island in Cork.
The lowest air minimum was -5.1 degrees Celsius at Mullingar, Westmeath, its lowest in six years, while the station also reported the highest number of days with air frost with 12. The month’s lowest grass minimum was -9.5 degrees reported at Oak Park in Carlow. The highest temperatures were mainly between 11 and 18 March with the month’s highest maximum reported at Newport on 16 March with 16.1 degrees.
The month had around 4.3 hours of sunlight a day in Mayo, but only 3.1 hours a day at Cork Airport.
The country was only hit by one named storm in March, when Storm Jake swept in at the start of the month, bringing 72 knot winds, the highest in nine years at some stations.
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