2023 was the warmest year on record in Kilkenny
2023 was a very mild and wet year, with an annual mean temperature of 11.2° making it the warmest on record by a large margin according to Niall Dollard of Kilkenny weather.com.
It was 0.4° warmer than the previous warmest year - which was last year, 2022. It is the first time the annual mean has exceeded 11° and it is a full 1° higher than the annual average for 1991 to 2020.
“Last year was exceptional for the very high sea surface temperatures across the North Atlantic Ocean and no doubt this had a big bearing on our annual air temperature.
“Rainfall was well above normal. It was our wettest year since 2009. March, June, July, September and October were particularly wet with February and May being the driest,” said Niall.
Several records were set in 2023. Here is the breakdown:
January
It was a mild January - mildest in 11 years. The top temperature was 13.1° on the 10th and coldest was -4.8° on 17th. This was the lowest temperature of the year. Rainfall was near normal and just one day with a measurable amount of snow.
February
A very dry month - our driest February in 37 years with a total of only 11.7mm. It was another mild month.
It reached a maximum of 14.2° on three occasions. There were no cold days with the lowest maximum being 8.4° on the 27th.
Lowest minimum was -3.2°
March
March was mild and very wet. Our wettest march for 59 years. Top temperature was 17.2° and coldest night was 15th with -1.3°.
April
Another milder than normal month. Rainfall was near normal. On April 12 the wind gusted to 82 km per hour and this turned out to be the highest gust of the year.
May
This was a lovely warm, sunny, dry month. It tied with 2008 for being the record warmest May. It reached 20° or more on six occasions and the top temperature was 23.3° on the 30th. The lowest temperature of 2.3° was on the 16th. There was no rain in the second half of the month and a drought set in.
June
The drought and warm weather continued for the first half of June. Then the floodgates opened. It was a very warm month. Mean temperature of 16.8° made it the warmest June since continuous records began. Warmest day was the 13th with 28.1°. The heavy thundery rains began on June 16th. The rain was torrential on the 17th and again on Monday 19th. The Kilkenny City area was particularly badly affected. The 42.0mm that fell in the space of 90 minutes during lunchtime on the 19th made this the wettest June day on record.
July
July was very wet and relatively cooler than normal. Measurable rain was recorded on 27 of the 31 days. It was our wettest since 2009. Top temperature was only 23.0° on the July 27.
August
This was a slight improvement on July but there were still a lot of showers during the month and the rainfall total was close to normal. The nights were mild and the temperature exceeded 20° on 15 days but there were no hot days with the highest being 24.9° recorded on the ninth.
September
Another record breaking month. During the first nine days we had an official heatwave (five consecutive days over 25°) and on the eighth it reached 28.0° which made it the hottest September day on record in Kilkenny. It was also another very wet month with rainfall totaling 175% of the normal . A top wind gust of 81 km/hr was recorded on 27th during Storm Agnes.
October
The first nine days were warm and relatively dry but the month concluded on a very wet note and it ended up being our second wettest October on record.Mean temperature was again above normal and the warmest day was seventh with a max of 23.0°. This was the second highest temperature ever recorded in Kilkenny in October.
November
Thankfully rainfall for November was below normal and temperature was near normal. A feature of this autumn was the lack of frosts. It took until November 28 to record the first air frost of the season. This was the latest date on record to record a frost.
December
Started off cold but then turned very mild. Rainfall up to Christmas was below normal but it ended on a wet note with 28.3mm recorded on St Stephen’s night.