August 2014 - a month of rain and cold

And the night of August 23/24 was exceptionally cold, with a minimum air temperature of 2.0 degrees C. This was the coldest August night ever recorded in Northern Ireland since records began at Armagh in August 1843!

The month was also much wetter than average, with nearly 70 percent more rainfall than the most recent (1981-2010) 30-year average August rainfall at Armagh.

Total precipitation was 129.7 mm (5.1 inches) making it wthe wettest August since 2008.

Despite the prevailing cool, showery weather, there were approximately 151.7 hours of strong sunshine with the sunniest day offering 10.9 hours on August 22, a statistic superbly illustrated by this picture of Ballymena taken on that very day!

August marks the end of the meteorological summer (June, July and August). Taking summer 2014 as a whole, and despite the cool August, this summer has been slightly warmer than average.There were also nearly 10 percent more hours of strong sunshine.

Total summer rainfall was nearly 9 percent more than the most recent 30-year average, the exceptionally wet August more than compensating for the much drier than average months of June and July.