The Reassessment of Monthly Minimum Temperature Extremes Across Ireland

Met Éireann, the Irish Meteorological Service, has historical climate records spanning nearly 200 years, many of them hand-written in observer logs. A majority of Ireland’s historical climate extremes (e.g. monthly maximum/minimum temperatures, wind gusts, highest and lowest monthly rainfall) have occurred before the use of sophisticated electronic instrumentation. This inherently raises concerns over the validity of these records compared to today’s modern standards. As such, herein we use a novel standardised procedure for verifying the monthly minimum temperature extremes across Ireland. This approach includes archival research, data rescue, contemporaneous observational and synoptic reports, and a thorough statistical analysis, in order to validate (or negate) the historical records. Through this standardised approach we have verified the veracity of all of the monthly minimum temperature records, including the all-time low temperature record for Ireland of -19.1°C which occurred at Markree Castle in January 1881.