Ireland's weather records

The hottest, coldest, wettest, windiest, sunniest and dullest weather ever measured in Ireland, from Met Éireann's official records: the all-time extremes, the record for every month of the year, the record years and seasons, and the great storms, freezes and heatwaves with their dates. The last part ranks the 32 counties on the weather of recent years.

All-time records

Most of Ireland's records come from the Atlantic edge and the mountains of the south-west, where the wind and rain are fiercest, while the heat and cold records belong to sheltered inland spots. The oldest go back to the 1800s, measured at country houses and observatories that no longer report.

Temperature

Rain

Wind and pressure

Sunshine

Record years and seasons

Met Éireann's national temperature series runs from 1900 and its national rainfall series from 1941. Recent years dominate the warm end of both.

Warmest year

2023, with a national average of 11.21°C. 2025 came a close second at 11.14°C, and 2022 to 2025 are the four warmest years on record.

Coldest year

1919, at 8.73°C, about two and a half degrees colder than 2023.

Wettest year

2023, with 1,510.9 mm averaged over the country, just ahead of 2009 (1,506.1 mm) and 2015. March and July 2023 were the wettest on record for their months, at 185% and 201% of normal.

Driest year

1971, with 911.8 mm, about 60% of the 2023 total.

Warmest summer

2025, at 16.19°C, taking the record from the long hot summer of 1995 (16.08°C).

Warmest and sunniest spring

Also 2025. It was the first time since 1933 that two seasons in a row set temperature records, and 23 of 25 stations had their warmest spring.

Hottest synoptic reading

32.0°C at Shannon Airport on 28 June 2018, the highest ever at one of Met Éireann's main hourly stations.

Coldest month nationally

January 1963 had the lowest mean temperature on record at most long-running stations, and December 2010 was the coldest December on record almost everywhere.

Records month by month

The highest and lowest readings ever taken in each calendar month, with the station and date. Some are a century old; others, like April's, were set in the last year or two.

Great storms, freezes and heatwaves

The events that set the records, oldest first, with a link to Met Éireann's account of each.

1. 1839

   The Night of the Big Wind

   6–7 January 1839

   A deep Atlantic storm crossed the north of Ireland on the night of the Epiphany, with hurricane-force winds for two to four hours in the small hours. Hundreds of thousands of trees came down, one Mayo estate alone losing 70,000, and fires spread through thatch: Athlone and Loughrea each lost around a hundred houses. Met Éireann's study counts about 90 deaths in Ireland, at least 37 of them at sea, and estimates the centre of the low at about 918 hPa. It is still the storm of folk memory, and was used to settle old-age pension claims seventy years later. Source

2. 1947

   The Big Snow

   January to March 1947

   Weeks of bitter cold ended in a 12-hour blizzard at the end of February, the worst in 25 years. Drifts blocked railways, towns in the west were cut off for a fortnight, and parts of Wicklow could not get out for a month. Thousands of sheep died. On 3 March Markree in Sligo fell to −17.2°C, still Ireland's lowest March temperature. The skies finally cleared on 8 March. Source

3. 1961

   Hurricane Debbie

   16 September 1961

   The remains of a hurricane swept up the west coast. Malin Head recorded a gust of 181 km/h (98 knots) and a mean wind of 122 km/h, still the September records, and Shannon, Claremorris, Clones, Mullingar and Valentia all had their strongest gusts on record. Eleven people died in Ireland, and Belmullet's pressure fell to 961.4 hPa. Source

4. 1963

   The Big Freeze

   Christmas 1962 to early March 1963

   Heavy snow on 30 and 31 December left 45 cm lying at Casement Aerodrome, and the cold barely relented for over two months. January 1963 was the coldest month on record at most long-running stations, inland places had 40 to 50 frosts in January and February, drifts reached 6 metres, and the Shannon froze so thickly near Limerick that people walked across. Source

5. 1986

   Hurricane Charley

   25–26 August 1986

   The remnants of Hurricane Charley brought torrential rain to the east. Kippure in the Wicklow Mountains had an estimated 280 mm, and Kilcoole about 200 mm in one day, a national record at the time. The Dodder burst its banks and Dublin had its worst flooding in a century. Source

6. 1993

   Ireland's wettest day

   18 September 1993

   A rain gauge at Cloone Lake, high in the mountains of south Kerry, collected 243.5 mm in a single day. It remains the national record more than thirty years on. Source

7. 2010

   The great cold spell

   late November to December 2010

   The deepest cold in living memory. Straide in Mayo fell to −17.5°C on Christmas morning, Casement Aerodrome to −15.7°C, and Ballyhaise in Cavan averaged −1.4°C over the month, the lowest monthly mean ever measured in Ireland. December 2010 was the coldest December on record almost everywhere, inland areas stayed below freezing for nine days in a row, and 27 cm of snow lay at Casement on Christmas Day. Source

8. 2014

   Storm Darwin

   12 February 2014

   The worst of a winter of storms. Shannon Airport gusted to 159 km/h, its strongest since 1961, and Mace Head had hurricane-force mean winds of 120 km/h, the February record. Around 8,000 hectares of forest were damaged across the south and west. Source

9. 2017

   Storm Ophelia

   16 October 2017

   The remains of the most easterly major Atlantic hurricane on record. Met Éireann issued its first nationwide red warning, and schools and businesses closed across the country. The mast on Fastnet Rock recorded a gust of 191 km/h, Roches Point a mean wind of 115 km/h, the October record, and 385,000 premises lost power. Three people died. Source

10. 2018

    Storm Emma and the Beast from the East

    28 February to 4 March 2018

    Bitter easterly winds from Siberia met Storm Emma from the south. Glenmacnass in Wicklow had 69 cm of snow, Naas and Bunclody 45 cm, and drifts of up to 7 metres were reported in Wicklow and Wexford. Cork Airport fell to −7.0°C, a record for March, and Met Éireann put the whole country under a red warning. Source

11. 2018

    Summer heatwave and drought

    late May to mid-July 2018

    Shannon Airport reached 32.0°C on 28 June, the highest ever at a main Met Éireann station. Fifteen stations had official heatwaves, Oak Park for 11 days, and 21 stations had absolute droughts of up to 24 days. Cork Airport had its driest summer in 56 years. Source

12. 2022

    Dublin's hottest day

    18 July 2022

    Phoenix Park reached 33.0°C, the highest temperature in Ireland since 1887 and in Dublin ever. Dunsany and Mullingar also set all-time highs. A month later Oak Park in Carlow reached 31.7°C, the August record. Source

13. 2023

    The wettest and warmest year

    2023

    Ireland had its wettest year since national rainfall records began in 1941 and its warmest since 1900. March and July were the wettest ever for their months, and Storms Betty and Babet caused widespread flooding. Source

14. 2025

    Storm Éowyn

    24 January 2025

    The strongest winds ever measured in Ireland: a gust of 184 km/h and a ten-minute mean of 142 km/h at Mace Head in Connemara, with hurricane force at both Mace Head and Malin Head. Every county was under a red warning, and at the peak 768,000 ESB customers were without power. Source

15. 2025

    A year of warm records

    2025

    The second warmest year on record, with the warmest spring and the warmest summer since 1900. Athenry set a provisional April record of 25.9°C, Connemara National Park reached 32.2°C on 13 July, and every station was sunnier than normal. Source

Extremes of 2021–2025, across the county towns

• Hottest day: 30.7°C in Meath on 18 July 2022
• Coldest night: −9.5°C in Kerry on 7 January 2025
• Wettest day: 68.7 mm in Waterford on 19 October 2022
• Wettest month: 293 mm in Cork in October 2022

Figures are averages for 2021–2025 at each county town, from the ERA5 weather reanalysis via Open-Meteo. They describe typical lowland weather in each county; hills and exposed coasts are wetter and windier.

Sources

The national records, monthly records and storm reports are from Met Éireann, which keeps Ireland's official climate records; recent figures may be provisional until Met Éireann has checked them. The county figures are averages from the ERA5 reanalysis of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, via Open-Meteo.

• Met Éireann: Weather extreme records for Ireland
• Met Éireann: Major weather events (the reports on each storm and spell)
• Met Éireann: Annual climate statement for 2025
• Met Éireann: 2023 confirmed as Ireland's wettest year on record