NINE OF MET Éireann’s weather stations across the country recorded their hottest temperatures ever on the same day in July.

An avalanche of news headlines announced that Ireland recorded its hottest temperature in 135 years – and possibly ever – when the measuring site at Phoenix Park in Dublin reached 33°C on 18 July.

Today it has been revealed that eight other weather stations joined Phoenix Park in hitting highs that they had never seen before. This means that more than one-third of Met Éireann’s 25 stations recorded their hottest temperature ever on the same day.

These are the stations, how long the records had stood for and the temperatures they reached:

• Phoenix Park, Co Dublin – 33°C
• Casement Aerodrome, Co Dublin (record length 58 years) – 31.9 °C, 
• Mount Dillon, Co Roscommon (length 14 years) – 31.4 °C, 
• Gurteen, Co Tipperary (length 14 years) – 31.0 °C, 
• Ballyhaise, Co Cavan (length 17 years) – 30.8 °C, 
• Athenry, Co Galway (length 12 years) – 30.5 °C,
• Dunsany, Co Meath (length 48 years) – 30.5 °C, 
• Mullingar, Co Westmeath (length 72 years) – 30.4 °C,
• Dublin Airport, Co Dublin (length 80 years) – 29.6 °C.

The record-breaking heat came in the third week of July as an exceptionally hot tropical continental air mass hung over the island. The weather broke when a cold front brought outbreaks of thundery rain as it pushed the hot air mass away to the east at the end of the week.

Met Éireann’s monthly report for July shows that all mean air temperatures across the country were above their long-term average (LTA) for the month. Temperatures at Phoenix Park were a full 1.7 degrees celsius above their LTA.

The weather data also shows that all monthly rainfall totals across the country were below their long-term average.

The station at Shannon Airport, Co Clare, recorded its driest July since 1989, reaching just 31% of its LTA. The station that was closest to its LTA was Malin Head, Co Donegal which reached 82% of its average July.

Overall, July was warm and dry, especially in the south and east of the island, as the Azores high – a centre of high atmospheric pressure – dominated for most of the month.

As the month drew to a close Atlantic weather fronts moved in from the west bringing showery rain that has persisted this week. 

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Ireland’s official highest temperature ever is 33.3°C, which was measured in Kilkenny Castle in June 1887. Met Éireann says this remains Ireland’s record temperature but doubt has been cast over whether it is accurate in recent years.

The UN’s IPCC has said that global warming has caused an increase in the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events.

The world has already warmed by about 1 degree Celsius since pre-industrial times due to human activity, and the IPCC has warned that global heating is virtually certain to pass 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, probably within a decade.

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