Climate of Ireland: description and description

In this publication, you can find out what climate in Ireland, as well as learn some interesting facts related to the weather conditions of the island.

General data and geography of the island

One of the largest islands in the British archipelago is Ireland. It is also the third largest in Europe after the Great Britain and Iceland. On the island there is an independent state, the Republic of Ireland or the Republic of Ireland (occupies 4/5 of the territory) and Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK.

The island is washed by the Irish Sea, which shares it with Great Britain, as well as the Northern Strait and St. George's Strait. In the center is a low plain, surrounded by mountains. The highest point is Mount Carrantuil, whose height is 1041 meters. Also in Northern Ireland there is the Sligo-Donard mountain with an altitude of 850 meters. The plain part is characterized by the presence of swamps due to the large amount of precipitation and the lack of developed drainage.

Climate Characteristics

The climate in Ireland is mild, humid, oceanically temperate. Winter here is mild and quite warm, summer is relatively warm. The warm west and south-west winds predominate, which are under the influence of the powerful Gulf Stream. The weather is unstable and can be quite volatile for even one day. Rain can be short and repetitive several times or pouring. During the year, about two thousand millimeters of precipitation falls.

Since the climate in Ireland is rather mild, the island is under green cover year-round. Because of this, he was nicknamed the Emerald Isle.

On the whole island, temperature changes are almost imperceptible, during the year it ranges from +9 to +20, the average temperature is +14 degrees. The division for the seasons is conditional. Since in Ireland, both summer and winter are warm, the year consists of two seasons.

Temperature conditions

During the whole year, a positive temperature regime is maintained (that is, above zero). Below is Ireland's climate by months.

In winter (December, January, February), the temperature does not rise above eight degrees Celsius. Sometimes there may be frosts, but usually they are not lower than five degrees below zero, which are only at night. The coldest month is January. Snow falls very rarely.

In the spring frequent showers, which are quickly replaced by the sun. In March, the air warms up to ten degrees in the daytime, and again at night to three. In April it becomes even warmer - +12, at night +4 degrees. May pleases the Irish, the temperature rises to sixteen degrees above zero in the afternoon and four at night.

The climate of Ireland is such that the summer is not hot, also variable, the sun can suddenly change to a cloud and rain. The warmest month is July. The temperature rises to twenty degrees of heat, and sometimes up to +25. At night it drops to +10 degrees. In June, the daily figures are seventeen degrees, in July - +20 ... + 22, in August - nineteen degrees.

By the autumn indicators are decreasing, in September they are seventeen degrees of heat, at night +10. In October afternoon, fourteen degrees above zero, at night eight. And by November they decrease in the daytime to +10, at night to +4.

Northern Ireland

In addition to the Republic of Ireland on the island is the region of the United Kingdom. Below, consider the climate of Northern Ireland, which is only slightly different from the climate of the Republic. It is also temperate oceanic. But most of the days in the year are raining, the pressure is low, the sun rarely breaks through low clouds. Most of the precipitation falls on this part of the island. Strong winds blow, there are often storms on the coast.

The temperature regime practically does not differ from the Republic. Only in winter, in January and late February, the temperature drops to almost zero. The warmest month is also July.

Interesting Facts

On the coast of the island strong winds are blowing, the highest speed was recorded in the city of Kilkil in Northern Ireland. It was 327 km / h. Also in 1995, near the capital of Ireland, Dublin, a tornado passed, the speed of which was 320 km / h. In winter of 2014 a strong wind (150 km / h) was also recorded, on 26 December 1998 the wind speed varied from 110 km / h to 170 km / h.

Fogs are frequent in Ireland, especially in the mountains, as well as in the center of the island. They appear in the morning when the atmospheric pressure is high.

The climate of Ireland is quite unpredictable. So, more than 150 years ago, the lowest temperatures in the winter were recorded -19 degrees. This was in 1881 in Tiron. And the heat itself was recorded in June 1887 in Kilkenny. It was +33 degrees. In 2010, the coldest weather was recorded over the past fifty years. The temperature of the thermometer dropped to -10 degrees, in the coldest regions almost to -19.

Above it was said that in Ireland, two seasons - winter and summer. So the summer begins to count from the first of May, and the winter from the first of November.

In winter, snow in these places appears rarely. However, a hundred years ago a record amount of snow fell, in some areas the snow cover reached a level of three meters.