Met Éireann has today (Wednesday, July 10) confirmed that 2023 was the wettest year on record in Ireland.
2023 finished up being narrowly wetter than 2009 and 2015, the two previous wettest years on record for Ireland.
Data from the national meteorological service previously showed that 2023 was the warmest year in Ireland, based on records dating back to 1900.
Last year, the mean temperature in Ireland was 11.2°C, which is 1.65° above the 1961-1990 long term average (LTA) and 0.35° warmer than 2022, the previous warmest year.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) have said that Europe is the fastest warming continent, with temperatures rising at around twice the global average rate.
Met Éireann
Met Éireann said that 2023 was wettest year on record in Ireland when compared against figures going back to 1941.
This follows analysis of the complete set of quality-controlled manual rainfall observations from hundreds of Met Éireann stations across the country.
2023 saw numerous flooding events, particularly in August during Storm Betty and in October during Storm Babet.
2023 saw the wettest March and wettest July on record, with 185% and 201% respectively of their 1991-2020 LTA rainfall.
Met Éireann said that five months saw over 135% of their LTA, mostly during the second half of the year.
During 2023, the gridded average rainfall was almost 1,511mm, which is up from the figure of 1,506mm recorded in 2009, the second wettest year on record.
The driest year on record in Ireland was in 1971 with 911.8mm gridded average rainfall.