Durrow’s climatological station completed it’s eleventh full year of records last New Years’ Day. Some interesting weather   conditions were noted throughout the year that saw below average wind speeds and rainfall following a year that saw weather patterns dominated by high pressure which gave a rather settled and fine theme to 2021. Last January was a cold month dominated by frosts and snowfall at times, though no disruptive amounts fell. It was during this cold spell on January 9th that we recorded an air temperature of –9.2c while the grass frost that night plunged to a numb –12.1c. Met Eireann are currently compiling all data from 2021 but it looks like the –9.2c recorded was the lowest nationally since Storm Emma in 2018.
A milder and wetter February followed and this gave way to a mild but drier March, though some rain was still around. April and May were very cold months with rainfall very absent in April, however May was notably wet. The summer kicked off in style with a warm June and a very warm July. Above average by around 2c, July gave us a memorable heatwave that saw Durrow record nine days in a row above 29c. The hottest day of the year was on July 22nd when the mercury soared to 31.2c, just 0.1c shy of our all time record in 2018. August saw the summer heat abate but the dry theme continued like all the summer – well below average  rainfall. In September we saw the summer conditions hang on and some notable heat in the first week saw temperatures soar back up to 28.3c in the first week. The rest of the month  continued warm with temperatures overall 2c above norms. Rainfall too was below normal.
October with the shortening daylight hours saw Atlantic fronts return to give an average months worth of rain and it was mild. Late Autumn into November continued with mild weather but it became much drier once more -there was some frost about though in the last week. The first month of winter felt like late-Autumn overall, very little frost about and probably the  windiest month of the year with a few gales recorded as storms came close to Ireland’s west coast. However the weather settled down for the  Christmas period with some cold at first before turning quite mild for the post-Christmas week.
As mentioned – the year as a whole was dry compared to normal with just 711mm of rain compared to an average of around 850mm to 900mm one would expect. Looking ahead to 2022 and a very dry January so far with little or no rain due before February rolls around. Early signs are for more unsettled conditions into the start of February. For live data visit www.laoisweather.com – automatically updated every five seconds and automatic climate data stretching back to 2008.