Athenry was wettest place in Ireland as grain growers count the cost

MANY parts of Galway have recorded their heaviest August rainfall in 2019 since records began . . . with Athenry the wettest place in Ireland during our eighth month.

Almost a foot of rainfall (297.3 mms) was recorded during the 31 days of August at the Met Éireann station in Athenry, rounded off last Friday (Aug. 30) with a 35.7mms downpour (1.4 inches).

And that wasn’t the wettest day of the month in Athenry! On Tuesday, August 6, the mid-Galway landmark town was bombarded with a 40.6mms downpour (or almost 1.6 inches) of rainfall.

Rivers in many parts of Galway have burst their banks following the downpours with large stretches of land under water over the weekend.

Abbeyknockmoy weather recorder Brendan Geraghty (whose records and those of his late father Michael go back to 1941) also had his wettest ever August with 10.2 inches (259mms) of rainfall.

“Since our records began 68 years ago, it was the first month, where on four different days (August 4th, 5th,10th and 30th), we got over an inch of rain.

“We had two very wet Augusts in 1985 (9.38 inches) and 1992 (8.22 inches) but this one topped the lot. The only wetter month I have on record is November, 2009, when I collected 12.67 inches of rainfall,” said Brendan Geraghty.

He added that while it had been a good Summer period through the months of May, June and July, tillage farmers – and especially those with corn yet to cut – were now under a lot of pressure.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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