MET ÉIREANN RECORDED unusually high temperatures on Wednesday as Storm Bram tore through the country, breaking records in eleven weather stations across the country.

Phoenix Park recorded a high of 17.2 degrees – breaking the all time high-temperature record for December of 17.1 degrees at the weather station.

The highest temperature ever recorded in Ireland in December was 18.1 degrees in 1948, but Paul Moore, climatologist with Met Éireann told The Journal that weather stations in Mullingar, Athenry and Finner were among the many locations which registered record-breaking temperatures this week.

The heat reached its peak at 11am, hours after the national forecaster extended a Status Orange weather warning across the entire county.

The storm – which brought strong winds, high tides and persistent rain – caused widespread disruption which many counties are still recovering from.

Some 54,000 were without power at the peak of the outages and numerous events were cancelled, many schools either closed or closing early and Dublin Airport flights also affected.

It may come as a surprise that Storm Bram also had the effect of bringing warm weather, but mild temperatures can be a common feature of storms in Ireland which come from warmer climates.

Moore said that Storm Bram originated west of North Africa, as the region is warm the storm brought a “warm, moist air mass” with it, causing a warm front to travel over Ireland.

According to the climatologist, global warming caused by climate change is one of the factors causing storms to bring warmer conditions.

Moore said storm systems are now developing over warming systems due to the increased in sea surface temperatures.

As well as this, the climatologist said the increased warmth is likely to cause wetter storms. He said storms are bringing more rainfall due to moisture from the warm temperatures.