WERE YOU IN Dublin last month? Was it raining?

With 22 of the 31 days in January in Dublin being subject to rainfall, it’s likely that it was. It’s also no surprise then that it was the second wettest month since 1948 for the county, according to Met Éireann’s climate statement.

South Dublin was among the worst affected areas for flooding in the aftermath of Storm Chandra. Met Éireann noted that it was the wettest month nationally since 2018, and some areas – particularly in the east and south east – were worse hit than others.

It might have been a wet month for Dublin, but it rained for 30 days in Newport, Co Mayo and at Valentia Observatory in Co Kerry.

Outside of just January, Co Wexford has had its wettest three consecutive months on record with heavy rainfall across November, December, and January. The county’s weather station at Johnson Castle also received the most rain in January nationally, but it was only the county’s wettest January since 1996.

Most stations recorded rainfall above their 1991-2020 long term average.

It was a colder month than it has been in the last few years, dipping to a national mean air temperatures of 5.31°C. This is the coldest it’s been since 2021.

The heavy rainfall, low temperature, and strong winds (yes, there were those too) have been attributed to repeated frontal rainbands moving over Ireland from the south due to a “cold blocking high pressure over northern and eastern Europe”.

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However, sunshine recorded was also generally above the average for the month nationally, with the most recorded in the south. Cork recorded 75 hours of sunshine throughout the month (which averages out to about two and a half hours a day). 

Donegal was considerably gloomier, with less than 50 hours of sunshine recorded at Malin Head and experiencing the strongest wind speeds and gales.