MET ÉIREANN HAS confirmed that 2022 was Ireland’s hottest year on record.

The forecaster published the data in its annual climate statement for the year, when it revealed that it beat previous records set in 2007 and 1945. 

The all-time highest maximum temperature records for July and August were broken in 2022; at Phoenix Park on 18 July (33.0°C, which is 12.9°C above its 1981-2010 long-term average (LTA)) and Durrow, Co Laois on 13 August (32.1°C).

The 18 July recording at Phoenix Park was also the country’s second highest temperature ever recorded in Ireland since 1887.

However, doubt has been cast on the 19th century record by a recent study which found that key information relating to the measurement is missing and that no other weather station in Ireland recorded more than 29 degrees that day.

This means it is possible that 2022 may have actually been the hottest day ever recorded.

Overall, 2022’s average shaded air temperature in Ireland is provisionally 10.83°C which is 1.28°C above the 1961-1990 LTA.

This makes 2022 the warmest year on record, 0.06 °C warmer than 2007, the previous warmest year.

Three weather stations also had their warmest May on record, while heatwave conditions were reported at seven stations between 9 and 14 August lasting between 5 and 6 days.

Met Éireann issued Status Yellow and Orange heat warnings in July, as well as a Status Yellow warning in August.

Met Éireann Met Éireann

The forecaster’s report noted that Ireland’s warming trend continued in 2022, and is warming in line with the global average.

Some countries are warming at a greater rate than Ireland and the summer of 2022 saw multiple heatwaves and record-breaking temperatures across Europe and around the world. 

Keith Lambkin, the Head of Met Éireann’s Climate Services Division said:

“Climate change has changed the odds of getting more frequent, more extreme heat related events. Thanks to over a century of dedicated weather observations here in Ireland, we know that 2022 brought us record-breaking extremes.” 

A recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that the evidence that climate change is occurring globally at accelerated rates is unequivocal, and that human influence has warmed the climate at a rate that is unprecedented in at least the last 2,000 years. 

The report states that with further global warming, every region is projected to increasingly experience concurrent and multiple changes in climate extremes, including more frequent heatwaves and droughts. 

Other conditions

Heat wasn’t the only factor at play in 2022′s weather, with most weather stations recording below average annual rainfall and an atypically mild autumn.

December was the only month of the year which had colder than average temperatures, with eleven stations having an ‘Ice Day’ on 12 December.

This is the term Met Éireann uses to describe a day where the temperature never rises above 0.0°C, with four of those stations going on to have a second consecutive ice day on the 13th and one station, Ballyhaise, Co Cavan, having a third consecutive ice day on the 14th.

Mount Dillon, Co Roscommon recorded the year’s lowest air temperature on 6 December with -8.8 °C.

Five named storms impacted Ireland in 2022, with the year’s highest gust reported at Mace Head, Co Galway on 20 February at 139 km/h.

Last year was also the hottest year on record for the UK with an average annual temperature of over 10C recorded for the whole of Britain for the first time.

A UK Met Office study, released this month, showed that human-induced climate change made the UK’s record-breaking annual temperature around 160 times more likely.

It said the warm conditions would have been expected once in 500 years under a natural climate, without humans warming the planet through activities such as burning fossil fuels.

But experts said this is now likely every three to four years in the current climate.

Additional reporting from PA.