KERRY HIT BY HIGHEST DAILY RAINFALL IN 80 YEARS

WETTEST AUTUMN DAY SINCE WWII BEGAN YET MONTHLY RAINFALL BELOW AVERAGE

TO say October 3 was an historic day at Valentia Observatory would be the understatement of all understatements. The south Kerry station was hit by a remarkable 105.5 milimetres of rainfall that Monday, making it the station’s wettest Autumn day since 1939.

This will come as no surprise to the people of south Kerry if their memories are refreshed. The historic downpour coincided with a Met Éireann-issued Status Orange weather warning for Kerry, and it was the south of the county that bore the brunt of the awful weather that day.

The conditions led to a landslide at Coomanaspig which caused considerable damage to a route between Portmagee and Ballinskelligs, while many more roads and bridges in the region had to be closed for a time due to flooding and other damage caused by the weather.

In total, almost one quarter of the autumn season’s total rainfall (from September to November) fell that day.

Just under 450 milimetres of rainfall was recorded by the Cahersiveen-based observatory for the autumn period, and while it may have included the wettest day recorded by Valentia since the start of World War II, total rainfall for the Autumn was still marginally below average.

This was largely due to a very dry November, during which just 77mm of rainfall was recorded. Despite that, Valentia still had the highest recorded seasonal rainfall in Ireland for the Autumn timeframe.

In other statistics released by Met Éireann, the average temperature at Valentia this Autumn was just under 11.5 degrees celsius, which was marginally lower than what would normally be expected.

Of observatories on the west Coast of Ireland, Valentia recorded more sunshine than any other. In all, just over 260 hours of sunshine were recorded for the autumn season at the south Kerry observatory, though this was far less than stations in the Dublin region, and Cork Airport.