This year is expected to be the warmest 12 months on record for Ireland, Met Éireann’s provisional state of the Irish climate report says.
Temperatures in 2023 beat the previous warmest year of 2022, and for the first time, Ireland’s annual average temperature is greater than 11°C (record length 124 years), it says.
2022 was the previous warmest year on record at nearly 10.9°C, narrowly beating 2007 by just 0.1°C.
Keith Lambkin, Head of Climate Services at Met Éireann said these record-breaking extremes “have knock-on consequences to much of society”.
“Past weather events are no longer a reliable indicator of future weather events, but knowing this allows us to better plan and adapt to our changing climate,” he said.
Ireland Temperature anomalies
Key points of the report are that :
- 2023 was the warmest year on record for Ireland (record length 124 years).
- For the first time, Ireland’s average annual temperature rises above 11°C.
- 2023 saw the warmest June on record.
- 2023 saw the wettest March and the wettest July on record.
- For the first time in 23 years, four months of the year were within their top 5 warmest months on record (average stays between one and two months every year since the year 2000).
- January 2023 observed the lowest temperature of the year with -7.2°C on Tuesday, 17 January, at Lullymore Nature Centre, Co Kildare.
- February 2023 was ranked 5th mildest and 6th driest February.
- March 2023 was the wettest March on record.
- April 2023 saw storm Noa brought storm force winds and waves to up 17.3 m on the Kerry and Cork coast.
- May 2023 was ranked 2nd warmest May.
- June 2023 became the warmest June on record with above 16°C average temperatures for the first time.
- July 2023 was the wettest July on record and wettest month of 2023.
- Significant flooding during storm Betty occurred in August.
- September 2023 was the 3rd warmest September with rare September heatwaves and the highest temperature of the year with 29.1°C on Friday 8th September 2023 at Lullymore Nature Centre, Co Kildare.
- October 2023 was the 2nd wettest month of year. Cork Airport recorded its highest October rainfall ever, with 222% of October’s 1981-2020 long-term average. Storm Babet caused significant flooding.
- November saw more rainfall and flooding.
- Eleven named storms during the year, and three named storms in December – Elin, Fergus and Gerrit.
Met Éireann notes that it has been over a century since the coldest March (1919), April (1922), May (1923), July (1922), August (1912), September (1918) and November (1919).
Since 2000, on average, one or two months of the year have recorded their top five warmest temperatures, it says.
“For example, in 2022, we had two months within their top 5 warmest. However, in 2023, four months reached the “top five warmest on record”: February (5th warmest), May (2nd warmest), June (warmest ever) and September (3rd warmest),” it says.
For the first time in a single year since 1941, two months observed their wettest on record, March and July, it notes.
