Weather of 2012 - Stats & Opinions

Deep Easterly

Any fond memories of the weather in Ireland during 2012? For me, very few; apart from a beautiful warm spell at the May and some terrific downpours thoughout the month of August the rest of the year was spectacularly forgettable in terms of weather: A late winter/spring for which I can't remember one day of weather interest; a cool, wet summer to be followed by a cold, dank and unnervingly slack Autumn/early winter.

Weather of 2012. To the gallows I condemn thee!

Local stats for Tuaim, Contae na Gaillimhe, recorded on Davis V2 with temp readings from La Crosse WS8610)

High temp 26.1 c (25th May)
Low temp: - 5.0 c (2nd Feb)
High wind gust 63 kts (4th Jan) High mean 10m speed: 30 kts (4th Jan)
Wettest day (N/A) High rain rate: 276 mm/h (3rd Aug)
Yearly rain total (up to 3pm Dec 31st: 1100.6mm. (Near normal)
Days with thunder heard: 6.

Pangea

Deep Easterly wrote: »

High wind gust 63 ktS (4th Jan) High mean 10m speed: 30 kts (4th Jan)

That cant be right?
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056497602

Harps

An utterly forgettable year for me as well, that brief overnight storm in early January was probably the most interesting event of the year but as it happened overnight and we lost electricity early on I couldn't appreciate it other than the noise. Wasn't particularly happy that it destroyed my back garden either :pac:

After that, we had nothing interesting until the heatwave in May and pretty much nothing whatsoever since. My little corner of Donegal managed to miss all the widespread thundery downpours throughout the spring/summer

Moved to Galway after the summer where its been grey, wet and calm constantly for the past 4 months although I did hear my one and only thunderstorm sometime in October that lasted all of two or three minutes


One brief storm, one brief thunderstorm, very few heavy downpours, only a handful of air frosts not even a single snowflake. The only saving grace was some good sunny weather in March, May and August

maquiladora

Nothing really stands out in terms of weather here, thinking back. Nothing really eventful in any extreme. Would have been a lot more boring without the weather forum though!

Hoping for a more interesting 2013.
(I think I said that last year about 2012... )

gbee

Late August, a strong wind event and one ex-sailor in the ward wanted the window open, the nurse did open the window but pulled all the curtains closed and all the bed blinds around each bed.

Ended up the scariest night I ever had, between the meds, the constant bleeping of the monitoring equipment, the curtains moving, the total darkness, distant voices in the corridors and the wind blowing in.

Otherwise, almost no storm chasing this year, fuel prices and timing with a lot of the opportunities being at night this year, dissuaded me from trying.

Not looking forward to this coming year at all, my instinct is telling me we will see some extremes, long overdue too.

Rikand

all the lovely thunder and lightening storms we had in the summer - Hope we have more of the same this year

redsteveireland

Best of the year was using my (still limited)knowledge and links gained on boards and putting myself in the path of the only thunderstorm I experienced all year.
Managed to video a funnel cloud, which I still haven't edited and uploaded.

Stinicker

This has to have been the wettest recorded year ever? I recorded 321 days of rain, mist, wet here in Kerry. Nothing very scientific just days which were not dry.

maquiladora

gbee wrote: »

Late August, a strong wind event and one ex-sailor in the ward wanted the window open, the nurse did open the window but pulled all the curtains closed and all the bed blinds around each bed.

Ended up the scariest night I ever had, between the meds, the constant bleeping of the monitoring equipment, the curtains moving, the total darkness, distant voices in the corridors and the wind blowing in.

Jaysus gbee, that sounds like something out of a stephen king book! :eek:

keith16

Remember the incredible weather we had in March? If only Ireland could have a regular, longer spell like that every year....such a better country when the sun is shining! Everyone in good form!

Min

My weather stats for 2012:

Temperature (°C), Heat Base: 18.3  Cool Base: 18.3
                          Dep.  Heat  Cool                       Max  Max  Min  Min
        Mean  Mean        From  Deg   Deg                        >=   <=   <=   <=
 YR MO  Max   Min   Mean  Norm  Days  Days  Hi  Date  Low  Date 27.0  0.0  0.0 -18.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 12  1   8.4   4.1   6.2   0.0   369     0  10.9  18   0.3    2    0    0    0    0
 12  2   8.4   4.4   6.4   0.0   331     0  13.7  23  -2.4    2    0    0    3    0
 12  3  12.0   5.5   8.6   0.0   240     0  19.1  27   0.3    4    0    0    0    0
 12  4  10.0   3.3   6.4   0.0   340     0  13.1  24   0.2    4    0    0    0    0
 12  5  14.9   7.1  10.7   0.0   237     6  24.8  25   0.1    6    0    0    0    0
 12  6  16.4   9.5  12.4   0.0   177     0  22.0  26   5.4    4    0    0    0    0
 12  7  17.2  10.4  13.5   0.0   157     2  22.4  17   6.9   12    0    0    0    0
 12  8  19.0  12.1  14.9   0.0   111     6  24.2   9   8.7   31    0    0    0    0
 12  9  15.6   8.4  11.8   0.0   192     1  23.1   3   3.8   22    0    0    0    0
 12 10  11.3   6.0   8.5   0.0   301     0  14.6  20  -0.1   27    0    0    1    0
 12 11   8.4   3.7   5.8   0.0   369     0  12.3  12  -0.3   29    0    0    1    0
 12 12   7.6   2.9   5.2   0.0   400     0  12.3  22  -0.6    5    0    0    2    0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        12.4   6.4   9.2   0.0  3231    17  24.8 May  -2.4  Feb    0    0    7    0

                                Precipitation (mm)

              Dep.   Max        Days of Rain
              From   Obs.          Over
 YR MO Total  Norm   Day Date  0.2  2.0 20.0
---------------------------------------------
 12  1  80.4   0.0  20.0  29    20    7    0
 12  2  30.4   0.0  11.8  11    10    4    0
 12  3  27.2   0.0   8.2  17     6    3    0
 12  4  63.4   0.0  12.8  17    17    9    0
 12  5  63.4   0.0  19.2   1    11    8    0
 12  6 178.6   0.0  28.6   7    21   16    1
 12  7  99.6   0.0  18.8   2    22   13    0
 12  8 130.6   0.0  19.6  15    23   14    0
 12  9  38.4   0.0  17.0  30    14    4    0
 12 10  78.0   0.0  29.4  23    16   10    1
 12 11  88.2   0.0  23.6   2    17   10    0
 12 12  70.6   0.0  10.2  12    23   13    0
---------------------------------------------
       948.8   0.0  29.4  Oct  200  111    2

                                Wind Speed (km/h)
                          Dom
 YR MO   Avg.  Hi   Date  Dir
------------------------------
 12  1  13.7  72.4    3   WSW
 12  2   6.1  78.9   18     S
 12  3   8.5  62.8    7   WSW
 12  4  10.7  62.8   29   NNW
 12  5   8.3  54.7   14   WNW
 12  6   8.3  64.4    8   WSW
 12  7   8.0  53.1   31   WNW
 12  8   9.3  57.9   15   SSW
 12  9  10.6  51.5   26     W
 12 10   7.8  59.5   17    SW
 12 11  12.2  70.8   22    SW
 12 12  11.5  69.2   28    SW
------------------------------
         9.6  78.9  Feb   WSW

pauldry

Sligo had a sunny summer ccompared to previously six but rain in first week of June stands out.

Stinicker

Min wrote:

My weather stats for 2012:

In your chart does it count the same days of rain, eg. does it count the day with heavier rain as a day with light rain also? Just curious to whether you had 200 days of rain or 313 when you add them up?

Stinicker

keith16 wrote: »

Remember the incredible weather we had in March? If only Ireland could have a regular, longer spell like that every year....such a better country when the sun is shining! Everyone in good form!

I was on Holidays then, :eek: I counted three days I would consider glorious days without a cloud in the sky for the whole year.

pauldry

Despite the cold Winters in 2010 and 2011 the world is continuing a warming trend and Ireland is warming too hard it is to believe. January could turn out very mild indeed compared to normal but colder weather could scupper it. THere is mild weather up to the 8th then a couple of days of cold and then a mild trend again so it could work out as a month with an average of 7 or 8c.

The winters like 2010 and 2011 are freak shows but will occur every now and again. One could happen next year or as some people are saying to me in pub weather talk "every 10 years we get cold Winters"...on average. This will probably be every 20 years by the end of 2040.

I think the weather at the start of December was the coldest that we will see this Winter because personally I see 2013 as being the warmest on record with temperatures of 9c or more in nearly all the months bar January and December on average.

I dont see much snow occurring at all for the rest of Winter.

Back to subject the warm spell in Early Summer late Spring brought 4 days of temperatures of 23c and more to the Northwest of Ireland and 3 days of unbroken sunshine with a total of over 40 hours of sunshine. I got burnt then and again in July and August. I drove through Geevagh on 24th August and there was a heavy hailstorm that whitened the road and the car slid so that was a highlight too.

With regard to frost there was only some in late November and December. Rainfall on 4 Thursdays in a row in late May and Early June were a highlight as winds seemed to be continually from the Southeast for a few weeks and then there were the 3 storms in December which was quite an eventful weather month really.

There were also a lot of spectacular cumonimbulus displays this Summer and heavy intense downpours of rain Nationwide and flooding in the South of the country especially in Cork.

I cant believe that people are saying that there were no highlights as it was a lot more eventful than 2011 apart from the birth of my children, my babies were pointing at weather in 2012 so a lot must have been going on. I only saw about 3 flashes of lightning in the Summer though and they were all in Co Leitrim so I dont know how Sligo got on in that regard.

Min

Stinicker wrote: »

In your chart does it count the same days of rain, eg. does it count the day with heavier rain as a day with light rain also? Just curious to whether you had 200 days of rain or 313 when you add them up?

I went through each individual month and it's rain summary of days with rain and the figure came to 261 days that rain >0.2 and upwards was recorded.
So something went amiss there somewhere - using cumulus software.

corksurfer2005

pauldry wrote: »

Despite the cold Winters in 2010 and 2011 the world is continuing a warming trend and Ireland is warming too hard it is to believe. January could turn out very mild indeed compared to normal but colder weather could scupper it. THere is mild weather up to the 8th then a couple of days of cold and then a mild trend again so it could work out as a month with an average of 7 or 8c.

The winters like 2010 and 2011 are freak shows but will occur every now and again. One could happen next year or as some people are saying to me in pub weather talk "every 10 years we get cold Winters"...on average. This will probably be every 20 years by the end of 2040.

I think the weather at the start of December was the coldest that we will see this Winter because personally I see 2013 as being the warmest on record with temperatures of 9c or more in nearly all the months bar January and December on average.

I dont see much snow occurring at all for the rest of Winter.

Back to subject the warm spell in Early Summer late Spring brought 4 days of temperatures of 23c and more to the Northwest of Ireland and 3 days of unbroken sunshine with a total of over 40 hours of sunshine. I got burnt then and again in July and August. I drove through Geevagh on 24th August and there was a heavy hailstorm that whitened the road and the car slid so that was a highlight too.

With regard to frost there was only some in late November and December. Rainfall on 4 Thursdays in a row in late May and Early June were a highlight as winds seemed to be continually from the Southeast for a few weeks and then there were the 3 storms in December which was quite an eventful weather month really.

There were also a lot of spectacular cumonimbulus displays this Summer and heavy intense downpours of rain Nationwide and flooding in the South of the country especially in Cork.

I cant believe that people are saying that there were no highlights as it was a lot more eventful than 2011 apart from the birth of my children, my babies were pointing at weather in 2012 so a lot must have been going on. I only saw about 3 flashes of lightning in the Summer though and they were all in Co Leitrim so I dont know how Sligo got on in that regard.

What basis do you have for all of these claims about 2013 being warmer or the rest of the winter not being cold? It all sounds very unfounded.

XxKathyxX

Min wrote: »

I went through each individual month and it's rain summary of days with rain and the figure came to 261 days that rain >0.2 and upwards was recorded.
So something went amiss there somewhere - using cumulus software.

Hey babes You seem to know what you are talking about!

Could nyou please tell me if it will rain tomorrow afternoon?

Thaaaaaaaaankss! xoxo

tylercollins

My most memorable weather event for 2012 would be when I witnessed a probable tornado on my way home from work one evening! Couldn't belive when I just looked to my right handside and there it was..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6cj4g2i_wc

ednwireland

Temperature Outdoor -3.6 °C 02:00 03/02/2012 31.7 °C 15:40 25/05/2012 9.3 °C
Barometer 974.8 hPa 16:40 14/12/2012 1043.4 hPa 08:40 12/05/2012 1015.3 hPa
Wind speed 20.4 km/h 05:00 03/01/2012
Wind gust 50.0 km/h 04:00 03/01/2012



Rain days
> 0.0 mm 245
> 2.0 mm 192
> 5.0 mm 95
> 10.0 mm 45
> 20.0 mm 4
Rain quantity 1419.765 mm

gotta love donegal

Min

XxKathyxX wrote: »

Hey babes You seem to know what you are talking about!

Could nyou please tell me if it will rain tomorrow afternoon?

Thaaaaaaaaankss! xoxo

I don't do forecasts since there are far better people than me who it and I am very much an amateur, so better stick with Met Eireann.

Today Mild and mostly cloudy today with patches of light rain or drizzle, along with some hill and coastal fog, but overall a lot of dry weather. Highest temperatures of 11 or 12 degrees with mainly moderate southwest breezes.

http://www.met.ie/forecasts/

Pangea

Year summary from Met Eireann
http://www.met.ie/MetAdmin/useruploads/file/annual_2012sum.pdf
"The highest gust of the year
was 91 knots (168 km/h) at Malin Head on January 3rd recorded as a low pressure centre of European Windstorm
Ulli moved near to Ireland. It was the joint highest January gust ever recorded at the station, since wind records began
in 1956 (56 years)"

Pangea

Deep Easterly wrote: »

Local stats for Tuaim, Contae na Gaillimhe, recorded on Davis V2 with temp readings from La Crosse WS8610)

High temp 26.1 c (25th May)
Low temp: - 5.0 c (2nd Feb)
High wind gust 63 kts (4th Jan) High mean 10m speed: 30 kts (4th Jan)
Wettest day (N/A) High rain rate: 276 mm/h (3rd Aug)
Yearly rain total (up to 3pm Dec 31st: 1100.6mm. (Near normal)
Days with thunder heard: 6.

Just realised these were local stats Deep Easterly, hence why I was doubting the gust, thought these were national stats!

Pangea

This must be the first year in a while that the highest rainfall wasn't in Valenita
Heres last years report aswell for anyone wanting to have a look.
http://www.met.ie/climate/monthly_summarys/annual_2011.pdf

Gonzo

2012 what a terrible year for weather in my opinion. Winter January 2012-February 2012 as well as November 2012 - December 2012 were completely forgetable. I remember seeing a few snow flakes around the start of January 2012 and haven't seen any snow since. Frost was almost non-existent untill November 2012 where we had quite a bit of frost till mid December 2012 and thats been it as far as cold winter weather is concerned.
After an extremely mild and boring winter 2011/2012 things turned cooler during March and stayed very chilly right up to the midpoint of December 2012 bringing below average temperatures and lots of rain and quite a bit of wind as well as yet another horrible summer. The only warm section I remember is end of May where we had a week of warm & sunny weather but nothing even close to a proper heatwave. Thunder, Lightning, Hail and snow have barely featured in my area from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2012, infact I don't think we had any thunderstorm other than the odd rumble of thunder. Mid December 2012 saw a return to the all too familiar very mild atlantic muck and as of January 2nd 2013 we are still stuck in this relentless atlantic train of garbage with no real signs of any decent cold appearing on the horizon. I hope 2013 turns out better but so far we are just running another repeat of 2012.

DOCARCH

ednwireland wrote: »

Rain days
> 0.0 mm 245
> 2.0 mm 192
> 5.0 mm 95
> 10.0 mm 45
> 20.0 mm 4
Rain quantity 1419.765 mm

gotta love donegal

Didn't fair much better here with 228 Rain Days (and 10 days in excess of 20mm).

Total rainfail here for 2012 of 1088.5mm.