2008 Weather. How was it for you?

Deep Easterly

Any features weatherwise that stand out for you in 2008? All in all I think 2008 was a bland and painfully insipid year weatherwise, not much happened in the skies here in North Galway.

Best features for me include:

Violent lightning storm on the morning of the 17th Jan. Purple forked lightning before daylight knocked out electricty for hours. Deadly.:)

Severe thunderstorm on the 31st May. Frequency of lightning and thunder was alarming for about 15 mins. (12 thunderclaps in one minute at one stage) A scary experience.

Warm, easterly early May. Only time I gained a tan. :rolleyes:

Rain event on the 21st June. 50mm in less than an hour during a storm.

Sunny cool and seasonal September and October.

Worst features.

Continous cloud cover during summer. Never felt properly warm at all.

Lack of any major wind events. March 12/14th about the best, but still crap.

Just near constant stratus throughout the year really.

Lack of continental influence for 99% of the year. :mad:

Lack of any significant snow. Anything that lied melted soon after.

Hopefully the weather was better where you were!!

Gonzo

2008 marks the year that I was absent from my hometown anytime something good happened.

However I was here for the wonderull mini Snowfall on January 4th 2008 which brought almost 7 inchs of snow here due to a short-lived 6 hours window of opportunity which opened up a floodgate of heavy snow showers in off the Irish Sea in 80s style. Next morning this melted rapidly with the mild wet muck charging in from the West.

Part of May and Early June brought wonderfull warm and sunny weather - little did we know that was all we were gettin in terms of warmth and summer sun for the entire year.

I was absent for the massive floods & thunderstorms during August, instead I got to view them on Sky News from a bar in Spain.

Then during my mid-term break late October I was only gone a day to Berlin when we had a snow day with 2 inchs on the ground which lasted most of the day. So far this has been the only snow of the winter here and I missed it!

The past 3 weeks has seen more frost than I can remember since my childhood, mostly sub-zero night time temperatures and daytime temperatures barely making 5C. Unfortunately not a flake of snow was to be seen despite this 3 week cold spell and now its gone back to mild wet muck just in time for Christmas!

nacho libre

"Best features for me include:

Violent lightning storm on the morning of the 17th Jan. Purple forked lightning before daylight knocked out electricty for hours. Deadly.

Severe thunderstorm on the 31st May. Frequency of lightning and thunder was alarming for about 15 mins. (12 thunderclaps in one minute at one stage) A scary experience."

that's more than i got. yet you consider it was a bland year:eek: you ungrateful little fecker:D just kidding:)

though, if i had experienced that i'd consider the year memorable.

peasant

I had two wonderful weeks of lovely hot sun in March ...




...in Cuba.


Don't get me started on the rest of the year :mad:

nilhg

Can't wait to forget about it, "summer '08" coast me thousands in fuel for my grain dryer, as well as destroying the soil structure in my soils as we ploughed through the fields trying to harvest.

Apart from that my brother got married on the 16th of August, he had a marquee in his garden, that morning we had one of those torrential storms, 90 minutes before the wedding I was helping a guy with a mini digger make a canal around the tent so it didn't flood.

I'm looking forward to the drought of '09...........................

mike65

On balance I only recall one year worse - 1985. At least that year we had some apparitions to distract us all.

I'm trying to recall an spell of warm settled weather.

noel farrell

best forgotten iwent to bulgaria in july and teneriefe november four weeks of sunshine this was the only sun i seen this year the only good thing next year cant be any worse

Snowbie

There is only one date that stands out this year and is the heavy Thunderstorm of 9th of August. Record breaking event with 56.6mm for the entire day.
26.2mm in one hour. I like extreme weather and this was imby. Fantastic

Last weeks in October and November cold.
Near Ice day on 29th Nov.

Month of east winds in May bringing a cool off the sea wind. Glorious sunshine but chilly winds right through kinda spoilt it.

In April, i recorded the most thundery April showers i ever observed for the month.

Also of interest, the 3rd and 4th day of Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr had snow.

One of the better years in recent times for being on the extreme side weatherwise.

mike65

Snowbie you are a sick mother! :pac:

conceited

SUMMER WAS ****E BUT OTHER THAN THAT IT WAS STILL ****E:D

danni2

Best days in 2008:

March the 3rd - a polar low formed and came across Ireland and gave me a spell of snow and there was nearly an inch of snow after it cleared.

January the 4th - a frontal system from the atlantic brought heavy snow for roughly 2 hours before turning to rain.

Middle of april (can't remember exact date) - had a heavy snow shower.

December the 14th - had a few snow showers in the early hours

Overall 2008 was a decent year for me.

Mothman

Nearly 2 weeks to go, I'm hopeful of a highlight.

Unfortunately the dull August :mad: stands out with only 94 hours, a figure typical of a poor October and even February had more sunshine.

The cold spell at end of October and November were really cool :cool:
My August rainfall was on the 16th including a one hour fall of 24mm.

February as a month also stands out with 12 air and 23 grass frosts, both records for all months, and its a short month. Although the 23 looks likely to fall this month!

2nd half of July was quite good here, mainly sunny and dry. Not a scorcher but summer did visit then.

Although I'm not fussed with just seeing snow falling, its having it lying that I'm really interested in, it is the one hour of snow falling on Oct 29th that is my years highlight, It really looked a winter wonderland but most importantly my son was home with me watching it and my daughter was naked running around outside. (I've no overlooking neighbours :eek:) and at least her clothes wern't wet:D

snubbleste

Dunno if this has been posted before but Met Éireann did an analysis of the 2008 Summer Rainfall phenomena http://www.met.ie/climate/monthlyBulletins/Summer2008rainfall.pdf
It has a lot of detail in it from local stations.

Mothman

snubbleste wrote: »

Dunno if this has been posted before but Met Éireann did an analysis of the 2008 Summer Rainfall phenomena http://www.met.ie/climate/monthlyBulletins/Summer2008rainfall.pdf
It has a lot of detail in it from local stations.

LOL. its funny how these little gems appear on the sly.
I haven't looked at it yet, but 43 pages, its looks fairly comprehensive

shamwari

Bar the stunning sFerics of 9th August, weatherwise the year was almost a non-event. Mild damp winter, mild damp summer. Same old sh!te really..:pac:

I was in Biarritz and the end of June and we had a spectacular thunderstorm which formed over Biscay and then blew in. I was sat down watching some football on the box and drinking a nice bottle of Basque red as the sky ripped itself asunder. Meteo-pyrotechnics at its finest

shamwari

snubbleste wrote: »

Dunno if this has been posted before but Met Éireann did an analysis of the 2008 Summer Rainfall phenomena http://www.met.ie/climate/monthlyBulletins/Summer2008rainfall.pdf
It has a lot of detail in it from local stations.

That's an excellent and well written doc by the Met Eireann. Well done snubbleste for finding that one!

Neamhshuntasach

The second half of the year has been great. I haven't seen one drop of rain since August. Back in Ireland for a while now and surprisingly i still haven't seen any rain. But i did see around 11 inches of snowfall the other day. All in all 2008 has been a decent year weatherwise for me.

kerry1960

Summer 2008 was disappointing , but from an imby point of view these would be my outstanding memories of 08 :

Two snowfalls in one year Feb and Nov , both borderline local 2 day events but nevertheless lying snow is becoming very rare in my location this Century.

The wind storm of 9th March , a 10 minute squall mid afternoon which took down 3 mature trees and burned my hedging so bad that it still hasn't recovered .

Dont have dates but several thunderstorms spread out over the Jan to Aug period with a particularly nasty one in early Jan ?? (not certain)

The post Christmas Easterly , nice to get a few sunny days and frosty nights during the holidays .

And finally .....the big one...... my outstanding memory of the year , and the one i shall be telling to my grandchildren (:D) in years to come .......yes.......that BIBLICAL Thunderstorm on 9th August in Croker and the aftermath of that fantastic Galway/Kerry q final , seeing people scampering all directions to get under the stands , trying to get out of Croke Park and seeing the floodwater bursting up the drains , the journey home to Tralee and arriving home 8 hrs later and still wet .

Edit: one final point to above , on my way up the Drumcondra road ankle deep in floodwater my twit of a Daughter rang me , she had been lurking here on this site that day and using all her Rainfall Radar Reading skills had decided to warn me in advance 'theres going to be showers shortly' .....lol.......:rolleyes:

Danno

2008 was a poor year indeed. I suppose, the 63mm of rain on August 16th despite the sun shining for my other half's sisters wedding was very interesting and lucky.

Surprised by the cool start to spring which brought snow showers up to mid April.

Dissapointed with no real hot day. 23.9c was the years top temp.

grahamo

The Summer was SO disappointing. The only time I remember a worse summer was ....2007. I really hope we get a bit of sun this year.

mumhaabu

kerry1960 wrote: »

Summer 2008 was disappointing , but from an imby point of view these would be my outstanding memories of 08 :

Two snowfalls in one year Feb and Nov , both borderline local 2 day events but nevertheless lying snow is becoming very rare in my location this Century.

The wind storm of 9th March , a 10 minute squall mid afternoon which took down 3 mature trees and burned my hedging so bad that it still hasn't recovered .

Dont have dates but several thunderstorms spread out over the Jan to Aug period with a particularly nasty one in early Jan ?? (not certain)

The post Christmas Easterly , nice to get a few sunny days and frosty nights during the holidays .

And finally .....the big one...... my outstanding memory of the year , and the one i shall be telling to my grandchildren (:D) in years to come .......yes.......that BIBLICAL Thunderstorm on 9th August in Croker and the aftermath of that fantastic Galway/Kerry q final , seeing people scampering all directions to get under the stands , trying to get out of Croke Park and seeing the floodwater bursting up the drains , the journey home to Tralee and arriving home 8 hrs later and still wet .

Edit: one final point to above , on my way up the Drumcondra road ankle deep in floodwater my twit of a Daughter rang me , she had been lurking here on this site that day and using all her Rainfall Radar Reading skills had decided to warn me in advance 'theres going to be showers shortly' .....lol.......:rolleyes:

In all my years 2008 was the worst year of weather I have ever seen, The thunderstorm that hit Croke Park and the lightning is something I will never ever forget and the epic battle that took place between Kerry and Galway underneath and the turning on of the lights. That rain was like something out of Noahs ark.

My high points would have been over 44°C in the Mojave Desert basin floor in late April in Nevada and around 36°C in Prague during July.

I think that the awful weather of 2007 & 2008 has had a massive effect on the economy also so hopefully 2009 will be a scorcher.