Met Éireann has confirmed that a weather station in Co. Mayo recorded the highest monthly rainfall total during August.
Over 257mm of rain fell at Newport over the course of last month, which was 194% of its long-term average (LTA), making it the station’s wettest August since 1985.
The highest daily rainfall total was also recorded in Newport on August 4 with 34.6mm falling.
The lowest monthly rainfall total was at Dublin Airport with 36.6mm during August.
Provisional gridded rainfall data for Ireland suggests August 2024 saw 114% (117 mm) of its 1981-2010 LTA rainfall and 113% of its 1991-2020 LTA.
Two stations had their wettest August on record: Malin Head, Co. Donegal with 181.3mm (record length 69 years) and Knock Airport, Co. Mayo with 215.4mm (record length 28 years).
The number of very wet days last month, with 10mm or more of rain, ranged from zero days at Moore Park, Co. Cork to 13 days at Newport, Co. Mayo.
Met Éireann
Based on provisional data, August 2024 had an overall average temperature of 15.47°C, which is 0.2° above the most recent 1991-2020 long-term average (LTA), 0.28° above the 1981-2020 LTA and 0.79 ° above the 1961-1990 LTA for August.
As a result, the national meteorological service said that August 2024 was ranked 35th warmest in the 125 year dataset and the coldest since August 2018.
The warmest August on record was in 1995 when the average temperature was 17.75° and the coldest was in 1912 with an average temperature of 11.63 °.
Mean temperatures for the month ranged from 13.3° (0.3° below its LTA) at Knock Airport to 15.8° at both Phoenix Park, Co. Dublin (0.6° above its LTA) and Shannon Airport, Co. Clare (0.3° below its LTA).
The month’s highest temperature was reported at Casement Aerodrome, Co. Dublin on August 11 with a temperature of 24.3°.
The month’s lowest air minimum was recorded on August 31 at Mount Dillon, Co. Roscommon with 3.5°, while the lowest grass minimum was -0.1 ° reported at Dublin Airport on August 30.
It was the coldest August since 2018 at eight weather stations and coldest since 2017 at twelve stations.
The highest number of daily sunshine hours recorded last month was 12.8 hours at Johnstown Castle, Co. Wexford on August 30.
The highest gust was 96 km/h reported at Roche’s Point, Co. Cork on August 23 during Storm Lillian.