With due regard for frightening away prospective visitors to Millstreet, I came across a very interesting article on the Summer Rainfall of 2008 published by Met Eireann that contains rainfall information for Millstreet (amongst towns all over the country). Now, we all know that summer 2008 was very very bad, and there were two days in particular when the heavens opened and flooded parts of the town (June 22nd & July 31st), but it’s worth the inclusion anyhow.
Below are some of the ‘highlights’ for Millstreet.
Note that records for Millstreet go back to 1985:
| Total(mm) | Max Daily | Date of Max Daily | # of Rainy Days (>1mm) | |
| June | 154.2 | 56.1 | 22 | 16 |
| July | 223.6 | 89.2 | 31 | 21 |
| August | 138.9 | 26.2 | 12 | 27 |
- June: Heaviest monthly June rainfall total on record for Millstreet 🙁
- July: Heaviest monthly July rainfall total on record for Millstreet 🙁
- July: Wettest town in Cork County 🙁
- August: 3rd heaviest monthly August rainfall total on record for Millstreet 🙁
- Summer: Wettest summer in Millstreet on record 🙁
- June 22nd: Heaviest daily rainfall in June on record for Millstreet- 56mm 🙁
- June 22nd: Heaviest daily rainfall in June 2008 for Cork County 🙁
- July 31st: Heaviest daily rainfall in July on record for Millstreet- 89mm 🙁
- July 31st: Heaviest daily rainfall in July 2008 for Cork County 🙁
- August 3rd: 5th Heaviest daily rainfall in August on record for Millstreet 🙁
In general, it’s a fascinating read, and gives a good insight into how we compared to other towns. Put in context, the 89mm of rain that fell on the evening of July 31st, was about the same as fell in the area around Newcastle West that caused such flooding there, but is dwarfed by the 1403mm that fell in one day from Typhoon Morokat in Taiwan recently.
I just hope that it is not a sign of things to come!
The published Met Eireann document on the Summer Rainfall 2008 can be read here: http://www.met.ie/climate/monthlyBulletins/Summer2008rainfall.pdf
