Summer 2024 - General Discussion

The warmth this past week in East Wicklow was lovely

Very comfortable in shorts and a t shirt,every day hitting 20 or above

Currently still above 20c at 715pm

Always happens when its an Atlantic breeze

This evening is just glorious

We really have been spoiled in Dublin this August another lovely day, dark now though by 9pm.

I certainly don't think they get consistently hot summers. But they do get hundreds of hours more sunshine than Ireland. London and Paris are very similar in climate with Paris obviously tapping into continental heat more often I agree. Overall, Paris does have the better climate for sure - but not massively so. It's roughly 1600 vs 1800 sunshine hours when comparing London and Paris in a typical year. London sunshine hours is similar to many northern mainland Europe cities such as Berlin. On a hot summer's day, the max temp in Paris will typically be around 2c warmer than London (Typically that is. I appreciate that Paris sometimes will tap into much higher 850's than London).

The South of France is a different story and cannot be compared. You are at the Mediterranean once you are down there with sea temps of 26 to 28c in summer. Completely different climate. Over 500 miles further south than Paris, so of course they get 30c almost every day in summer.

Best way to describe the London climate in summer is a half way house between the crap we deal with and what Central Europe gets.

I agree with your imaginary line though for where proper summers occur south of it!

wouldn’t consider myself an expert but I do know you don’t get a red moon rising like now when our weather is coming off the Atlantic, these red moons usually happen during summer heatwaves when our weather is coming from the continent meaning a lot of dirty air and pollution in the atmosphere.

Yes, smoke in the atmosphere from Canadian fires.

Another nice day in Dublin with temperatures getting up to 20º in most of the county again.

This is the 13th day that temps have gotten over 20º in Dublin - so not bad considering that the overall synoptics haven't been amazing.

However we are getting to the stage now where the sun is beginning to lose its strength and good temps get harder to reach unless there is decent weather with warm uppers.

It can obviously stay warm and pleasant and get into the 20s well into September (last year being an example). But unlike from late June to early August where even a bit of sun between the clouds will usually see temps shoot up to comfortable levels, we'll have to finally see some good, settled conditions for that to happen now.

No later in August and September I am confident it will be over 20c many more days.

However the next 7 days look brutal.

Orange moon following the orange sun.

I'm predicting+20C in September

Wet dark miserable morning in Leitrim 11C. It reached the dizzy heights of 17C yesterday when the sun managed to peak out from the clouds.

Yesterday was a really nice day and I managed 2 swims. Today is going to be very wet, during work hours at least. I have really noticed river/lake water levels rising in the west since start of August. I am amazed that Dublin Airport has only received 8mm of rain so far in August - the east is keeping the dry pattern going. Hope skies are clear for the blue moon later.

I think Sept will deliver at least a short settled spell. Perhaps low twenties.

I think once the heat drops a little in the US, the jet stream will weaken as a result.

Agreed. Barely 1mm of rainfall here in Limerick City today so far and looking at the radar the front seems to be breaking up as it moves east.

Looks like that huge band of rain is going to miss N Kildare anyway. Blustery day, cloudy, 16c

Not much rain in Arklow,just dull drizzle

But man the wind has got up

It's been a while,gusting north of 60kmh

This is how August has looked so far. It's another +NAO month but compared to June and July which were primarily NW'ly driven feeding in relatively cool air often from the North Atlantic, August has been much more southwesterly drawing in tropical maritime air from the central Atlantic increasing the humidity and overall temperatures relatively speaking. But that also means more chance of rain as this wind direction combined with low pressure gives way to high moisture levels. An atmospheric river setup if I've ever seen one.

One quirky thing though has been just how dry the east has been here, particularly the Dublin area. Belmullet is on a rounded 109mm to the 18th whilst Dublin Airport is just on a rounded 9mm, 100mm less. We can often see a significant difference in these setups between the west and east but this is rather peculiar.

It seems that fronts have either just gotten stuck to the northwest or they lose all their moisture as they come down the country with ridging nearby to the southeast but not quite getting over Ireland to delivering a good summery spell. Not sure how true this is but seen suggestion that this could be down to a deceleration in winds aloft and increased sinking motion in the upper troposphere suppressing the formation of convergence lines and reducing moisture? I don't know but it's an interesting case.

The rainfall will be even more pronounced by end of August. Some of the West might get 200mm while the East may not get over 40mm

I completely agree. We had a very dry May/June/July in the west but it was colder than average. I thoroughly enjoyed it because it was bright and dry - the "cold" never bothered me in the slightest. We will know all about real cold soon enough. My golf handicap improved no end but has been rising again since the wetter weather started in August. I did notice that I didn't do half as much kayaking as last May/June because it was colder and somewhat windier. Dry trumps all in my opinion. Like Sryan, I am amazed that Dublin has only got 9mm of rain so far in August despite the pivot to warmer south westerlies. I'd take that for sure.

Up to 105mm for minth in Sligo today 18mm and still it rains