December 2010
1st December at the Castle Park. A new month begins, bitterly cold. There was 7cm on the ground at 9am. But even more was added to, as snow showers piled in from the Irish Sea, fed along by bitter north east winds. The temperature failed to get above zero.
November 2010
Windmills working over time near Listerlin, Co. Kilkenny after a bright start to November 13th. November began wet and windy. Thursday 11th was particularly windy with the wind gusting over gale force 8 several times, in the afternoon and evening. The month ended on an extremely cold note with snow first falling on Saturday 27th and continued on the ground until well into December. A new November minimum temperature record for Kilkenny was set on the morning of Monday 29th.
October 2010
Anyone for ice cream? The Castle Road, Kilkenny on October 12th. October saw some beautiful fine days and on two occasions the temperature topped 20°C. It did not exceed the October record of 23.7°, set in 1957 - but nobody was complaining! After a dry start with only 22mm in the first 22 days, there was a very wet end to the month with flash flooding on friday 29th. The month ended with 94mm in total (110% of normal) and mean temperatures were exactly normal.
September 2010
John's Bridge on the evening of 6th September. The 24 hours prior to this saw the greatest 24 hour total ever to fall in Kilkenny, since records began (1957). Luckily the ground was dry and the flood relief scheme did its job well. The month overall was the wettest since 1999 and it was just over 1 degree above normal - due mostly to mild nights. For more see: http://www.kilkennyweather.com/index.php/2010-record-24-hour-rainfall.
August 2010
Kell's Priory on the 24th - which was a bright but breezy day. While only having one "hot" day - August was a good month overall with many dry days and normal temperatures.
July 2010
Ballyline, Co. Kilkenny 5th July. There was a fine, dry start to the month but thereafter it turned very wet with temperatures struggling to reach the 20°C mark.
June 2010
Light shower clouds approaching Kilkenny on 6th June. Early June saw some mixed weather - some warm days but also some rain. Luckily the fair weather held out for most of the holiday weekend, monday excepted.
May 2010
May 1st and the cherry trees are in full blossom. After a cold start to Spring, above normal temperatures in April has speeded up growth. The first week in May too was cold but we also saw some warm days later on, with temperatues peaking at almost 26° on the 23rd.
April 2010
April 2nd above Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny. The heavy snow that fell overnight 30th/31st March is still on the ground. The first 7 days of April were cold and sometimes wet - however by Sunday 11th, temperatures had recovered and peaked over 20°C. There was no rain recorded between the 7th and 23rd and April temperatures ended up over 1 degree above normal. (Pic. courtesy D.Dunne)
March 2010
Mount Juliet, Co. Kilkenny on the 5th March. Two months earlier and temperatures were at -16.3° C here. (The coldest temperature recorded in Ireland since 1979). Brilliant sunshine shines down on the almost brown grassland. While the days were pleasant (up to 10 ° C) - the nights were still bitterly cold. Coupled with no rainfall has meant no grass growth.
February 2010
Early February and the snowdrops first start to appear. Usually they would appear in January, but this year February has continued where January left off with plenty of night frosts. At least though we have not seen the very low temperatures seen earlier and it has been reasonably dry.
January 2010
Ice "skating" at the Nore Linear Park on Jan 4th. The cold spell which began in late December, continued well into January. With nightime temperatures of -5 to -11 degrees C and no thaw, ponds had frozen over to such a degree that they could sustain the weight of an adult. It ended up the coldest month since January 1963. Total precipitation was 71mm which was only 83% of the norm. The max snow depth (5cm) was recorded on Sunday the 10th.