Extreme temperatures becoming more common in Ireland, study shows

Ireland will experience more frequent extreme heat, impacting over larger areas of the country with temperatures exceeding 30 degrees, climate scientists at Maynooth University (MU) have said.

A “temperature event” of 33 degrees in Dublin’s Phoenix Park has gone from being a once in 180-years event in 1942 to a once in nine-years event in 2020, they forecast.

The highest temperature ever recorded in Ireland was 33.3 degrees at Kilkenny Castle on June 26th, 1887.

The findings based on weather station data indicate the urgent need for “societal adaptation to increasing extreme temperature events, that will have profound implications for public health, agriculture, economic stability and infrastructure resilience,” said lead researcher Prof Andrew Parnell.

Compared to the 1940s and 1950s extreme heat events will be more frequent, involve higher temperatures and be more widespread due to human-caused global warming, Prof Parnell said. They will be less isolated rather than occurring, for instance, at a weather station in the Phoenix Park.

He hoped the next stage of the research would look at implications for emergency services, and examine likely crop impacts such as effects on oats, in terms of growth and disease threat.