December 2014

 Morning sunlight near Owning, Co. Kilkenny on 2nd December. The ancient Kilkieran Crosses are in the foreground and the Comeragh Mountains glisten on the horizon. Early December saw many frosty, foggy mornings but a few nice ones too!

December Summary: It was an average month temperature wise but there were more frosts than usual. 16 in all. The coldest morning was on the 29th when -4.9° was reached. The mildest day was on the 21st with 13.2°. Rainfall was below normal. Just over 75% of normal. Thursday 11th was the wettest day with 12.2mm.

November 2014

The flooded King's River surrounds the Motte at Callan on Friday 14th. There was some very topsy turvy weather earlier that night. A total of 37mm of rainfall fell in Kilkenny from 7am Thurs to 7am Friday. As a small depression moved up from the south, the Southeast wind gusted to 74 kph at 1:30. The temperature peaked at 12.7° around that time and then it relented and the temperature dropped sharply to give  a slight ground frost at dawn!

November Summary: There was a mild start to the month but a cool end to it, with plenty of frost and fog and this ensured that the mean temperature was normal.  The warmest temperature of 14.2° occured on the first of the month and the coldest was -2.7° on the 26th. The grass minimum temperature dipped to -7.7° that morning.

Despite a dry end to the month, rainfall was well above normal. The wettest day was the 13th.

October 2014

It was a pleasant Autumn day at Thomastown on Saturday the 11th, after early morning fog had cleared. Earlier in the week a low pressure system produced some thundery downpours but at least the weekend was dry.

October Summary: A very mild end to the month ensured that mean temperatures were 1° above normal. That said, 2006, 07, 09, 11 and 2013 were all even milder! The warmest days were 2nd and 18th when it reached 18°. The coldest night was on the 7th when it dipped to 0°.

Rainfall was 127% of normal with the wettest days being the 3rd, 5th and 28th - however it was not as wet as 2013.

September 2014

The sun sets over Drakeland Lower, just outside Kilkenny on the 16th. It was yet another warm sunny day with maximum temperatures over the 20° mark. 

September Summary: It was quite a remarkable month. Mean temperatures were 1° above normal. The mean maximum temperature of almost 20° was higher than that of August. On 13 days the temperature reached or exceeded 20° with the maximum temperature of 22.8° being recorded on the 4th. The coolest night was on the 10th when a minimum of 3.6°. There was also a ground frost that night.

Rainfall was very low. Just 18% of the normal. It was the driest September since 1986 and our driest month since the heatwave of August 2003.

August 2014

Some fair weather cumulus coulds over Bennettsbridge on August 23rd casting shadows over a branch of a tree masquerading as a serpent moving up the river Nore ! August was a mostly cool month - shaping up to be the first below normal month of the year. Rainfall was well above normal too but thankfully the heavy falls came on a small number of days and there were quite a few dry, cool pleasant days such as in the photograph above.

August Summary: Overall it was a cool month with mean temperatures 1 degree below normal. There were no very warm days with the maximum being only 22°, recorded on the 6th. The lowest temperature was 5.4° on the 23rd.

It was however a wet month with almost 150% of the normal rainfall but most of this fell on only a small number of days at the start of the month - notably 1st, 2nd, 5th and 9th. There were some particularly heavy bursts on the 2nd, when a total of 21.1mm was recorded. The top wind gust was on the 29th when the windspeed reached 50 km/hr.

July 2014

A cloudy but mild Saturday morning on the 12th July at the "Peace Park". There was little peace to be had unfortunately as the diggers had moved in with work on the new bridge.

July Summary: It was a warm, dry month. Not as warm as July 2013 but still 1.4 degrees above normal. The warmest day was Friday 25th when it reached 27.3°. The coolest night was July 6th when it dipped to 6.7°.

It was a dry month with just under 30mm of rainfall. This made it our driest July for 15 years. There were no days with any heavy falls of rain. The wettest day was the 17th, with 5.9mm of rainfall.

June 2014

Polerone Quay near Mooncoin, Co.Kilkenny on June 18th. The first 10 days of the month were showery but thereafter there was a long settled spell and temperatures rose to 26.7° in the City on this date.

June Summary:  Overall it was a warm month with temperatures more typical of July. The coldest night was 5th June when it dipped to 4.4°, with a touch of grass frost. There was a total of 50.1mm of rainfall (almost 2 inches) and this is 75% of the June normal. The start of the month was wet with the wettest day being the 3rd with 15.4mm. Around mid month there was a 2 week spell with no rain. The top wind gust was recorded on the 8th (46 km/hr).

May 2014

Bluebells near Birchwood, Owning, Co. Kilkenny on the 13th May. The first half of May saw some mixed weather, some rain and windy spells but some nice sunshine too.

Overall it was n't a bad month. Mean temperatures were above normal - it was the warmest since May 2008. The warmest day was on May 31st when 21.7° was reached. Rainfall in the City was a little below normal. We missed a lot of the thundery downpours experienced elsewhere. The wettest day was May 18th with 12mm of rain.

Spring 2014 (March to May) : It was the third mildest Spring on record (going back to 1958). Only Springs 2011 and 2007 were milder. There were few frosts. Rainfall was just a little below normal. There has been a recent trend towards drier than normal Springs and we have to go back to Spring 2009 for our last Spring wetter than normal.

April 2014

A crow flies over the  cherry blossom tree outside Callan Library on the 15th April. April got off to a warm, dry start with temperatures almost to 16°.

Monthly Summary : It was a warm month with temperatures more typical of May. The highest temperature was recorded on Tuesday 29th when 19.5° was logged. The lowest was on Sunday 20th with 1.0°. There was 44.0mm of rainfall. This is 75% of the normal for April. The wettest day was Friday 25th with 9.2mm. The top wind gust of 61 km/hr was recorded on the 25th. Unusually this wind came from an easterly direction, as a quite deep depression passed to the south of Ireland.

March 2014

A fallen willow tree branch at the banks of the King's River near Ennisnag on a misty 13th March. The aftermath of the February Storm was still evident all over the County. But mid March brought a welcome relief from all the wind and rain with many quiet, dry bright days. It did turn misty and frosty at times - but it was superb to have anticyclonic conditions for a change.

Overall both rainfall and mean temperatures were close to the 1981-2010 normal. The wettest day was March 6th, when 15.0mm fell. The warmest day occurred on the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day, when a respectable temperature of 15.9° was recorded. The lowest temperature of -1.1° occurred on March 11th. The strongest gust of 64 kph (gale force 8) was recorded at 1pm on March 18th.

February 2014

Sunrise on February 13th. It was the day after the great storm and the ground was dusted with around 1cm of snow (depths were up to 10cm on the hills).

February hit the news for all the wrong reasons. In addtion to the very strong storm on the 12th, it was also a cool and very wet month  with almost incessant rain as the country was bombarded by storm after storm.

 

Winter 2013/14 was the wettest on record. There was a total of just under 460mm of rainfall. It was also the wettest February on record with a total of 177.4mm , following on from the 4th wettest January and 6th wettest December. The wettest day was December 29th with 35.5mm of rain.

Temperatures overall were just a little above the most recent 30 year normal. But there were few severe frosts. The coldest day was Christmas Day with a minimum temperature of -3.2° and the mildest day of the Winter was the 12th of December when it reached 13.5°

Of course it will be remembered for the big storm on February 12th when the wind gusted to 133 km/hr, easily the strongest storm in over 15 years.

Lying snow was only recorded on one day, February 13th, the day after the big storm.

January 2014

Sunset on the 18th January 2014 on a snow capped Brandon Hill, near Graiguenamanagh. This was one of the cooler phases of the month - however snow only settled on the highest ground in a generally westerly airflow.

With a total of almost 150mm rain, it was the wettest January in Kilkenny since 1996. Mean temperatures were near the 1981-2010 normal mean. There were nine days with air frosts.