1. Annual Temp & Rain Trend      2. Effect on Plants            3. Extremes of Temp

4.Climate Stats 2010                    5.Climate Stats 2009         6.Climate Stats 2008      

(See footnote below for details on where the data on this page comes from) 

1.Annual Temperature Trend

The overall trend in temperatures has been clearly on the rise with a marked increase from 1988 onwards. 2008 has seen a little dip and 2009 has followed suit  - but annual temperatures are still running over 0.5 degrees above 20th century levels.

The table below shows the warming trend broken down month by month. Clearly, the mean temperatures for all of the 12 months of the year is higher this century than the last.

Of course the warming has not occurred evenly. Jan, Apr, May, Aug, Sep all stand out as well warmer - whereas July and Dec show up less. One quirke is that the Junes this century are still only on a par with the Junes of the late 19th century. (Bearing in mind though, that June 1887 did record the highest temp in Ireland).

Annual Rainfall Trend

The late 1950's and early 1960's were wet but thereafter rainfall had been pretty steady. 2002 was a very wet year. However since 2005, annual rainfall has been increased steadily, with 2009 being the wettest year since records commenced in 1958.

2.Effect on Plants

Phenology is the study of the times of recurring natural phenomena. For more about phenology in Ireland, look at the Bio Diversity Ireland Website .  In recent years I've kept note of the arrival en masse of two common Spring flowers - the King Alfred type daffodil and the large cherry blossom. In table below this is compared with expected date circa 1980. 

The early Spring in 2005 is well reflected.

But contrast 2005 with this year 2010, the daffodils have emerged at least 3 weeks behind typical 20th century dates, as a direct result of the frosty cold winter. Temperatures have picked up considerably through April, enabling the large cherry to blossom a little before May 1st (but still was latest date in passed 6 years).   

Up until 2010, mild/early springs have been very much characteristic of the 21st century. 

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3.Extremes of Temperature in Kilkenny Area

* This temperature is regarded as the highest recorded in Ireland. Kilkenny Castle temps are all converted from whole fahrenheit figures.

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4. Climate Statistics for 2010

Temperatures from liquid-in-glass thermometers(C) and Rainfall (mm) (Departures from norm 1961-1990)

Colour Code

5. Climate Statistics for 2009

2009 Annual Summary and Graphs

2009 was a mild and very wet year overall. There was a mild Spring and early Summer period, followed by a mild autumn. The start was cold and the year ended on a very cold note with December seing many frosts and temperatures over 2 degrees below normal.

But the key feature in 2009 was the rain. January, April, July, October and November were far wetter than normal. November was the wettest on record. 

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5. Climate Statistics for 2008  

After a mild start and record breaking warm May, a cool Sep-Dec period brought temps back a bit. Overall the year was still the coldest for 7 years despite being just over 0.5 above the 1961-90 norm.

The summer was exceptionally wet. See also Met Éireann's excellent summer 2008 report http://www.met.ie/climate/rainfall.asp

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 Note re climate data: We in Kilkenny do not have the luxury of long term (>100 yrs) data from any one climate site. Nevertheless I have combined the data from the three sites 1) Kilkenny Castle 1886-1900 2) Kilkenny Met Station 1957-2008 3) My own site 2007+ . All three sites are within a radius of 1km and an 11 month comparison between my site and Kilkenny Met revealed only a -0.1C difference. Looking at the Kilkenny Castle average and extreme data, I would not expect much appreciable differerences here either, to the other two sites.

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