Natural Disaster Geolgy9: Irelands extreme weather

Like it’s people, Ireland’s weather is never boring or predictable. Dancing in the rain, blowing in the wind, but all the time, the sun is never far away!

Our climate can be summed up as being mild, moist and changeable with abundant rainfall and a lack of temperature extremes. You can experience all four seasons in the one day, if you're lucky!

Because the island is hugged all year round by the warm influence of the Gulf Stream, Ireland is much warmer than other countries that share its latitude. The Gulf Stream also ensures that the Irish coastline remains ice-free throughout winter.

Extreme winters are rare, and you're more likely to encounter a warm glow than a frosty reception, with average winter temperatures of between 40°F/5°C and 46°F/8°C.

Summer temperatures are generally between 60°F/15°C to 70°F/20°C. One thing that is more than probable is rain - that’s what makes our grass so green, so don’t forget to pack your rain gear and a woolly jumper!

Climatologist Professor John Sweeney has warned that Ireland “will have to get used to” extreme weather events like the flooding experienced in parts of Cork last week.

Prof. Sweeney told Newstalk Breakfast that all extreme weather events have the “fingerprint, however small” of climate change on them and Storm Babet was no different.We know that this particular storm, however, developed in the very warm waters off the coast of Portugal. We’ve been having a marine heatwave most of the summer and autumn, so it was developing in waters which were one to two degrees Celsius warmer than usual.

“That means it could hold a lot more water vapours, so it’s arriving on our shores supercharged, and it’s that really which, I think, is pointing to the climate change dimension as being instrumental in making the event more extreme as the residents of Midleton would no doubt testify.”

There was no doubt that floods like those in Cork last week would happen again because Ireland’s climate was changing.