Weekend weather sorts drought but not drinking supplies

A heavier than expected pulse of rain that hit the West last weekend eased some of the drought and growth problems on farms – but it had little or no impact on dwindling water supplies.

The Met Éireann weather station in Athenry recorded its heaviest day of rainfall in over two months on Sunday last when 16.5mms or 0.65 inches of precipitation fell over a 24-hour period.

The cumulative rainfall total for last Saturday, Sunday and Monday at the Athenry station was 22.9mms (close to an inch) and almost as much as we got for the entire month of June (25.2mms.)

However, Irish Water warned this week that it would take ‘sustained rainfall over many weeks’ to replenish raw water levels in rivers, lakes, ground sources and in reservoirs.

The water crisis is getting more serious by the day for the Aran Islands with Irish Water warning last weekend that their volume of stored rainfall would only last for just over another two weeks.

“Demand for treated water on Inishmore is extremely high at 580 cubic metres per day and there is only enough volume of stored water on the island to supply for 17 days. The boreholes that supplement supply are now in danger of being exhausted,” Irish Water state.

If the drought continues, Irish Water warn that afternoon restrictions of supply are ‘likely to be introduced’ on Irishmore and Inisheer on top of the current night-time restrictions that apply – 8pm to 8am daily.

“Water usage on Inishmore has increased in the past 28 days [now in the peak of the Summer tourist season], although leak repairs have gone some way to reduce the level of increase in demand. Reservoir levels are giving cause for very serious concern,” say Irish Water.

Kate Gannon, Corporate Affairs Manager with Irish Water, said that the appeal to conserve water applied to every household and outlet across the country.

“We know for example that the vast majority of people are supporting the hosepipe ban but we do have reports of people being in contravention of it.

“We again appeal to those people to comply with these essential minimum measures to safeguard our water supplies,” she said.

Most weather recording outlets across the county last weekend reported on higher than predicted levels of rainfall and especially so on Sunday.

While Athenry recorded the heaviest rainfall of nearly all the West of Ireland stations there were also significant falls in Galway city (18.6mms.), Mount Dillon, Roscommon (17.5mms.) and Claremorris (10.3mms.) Weekend rainfall at Mace Head in South Connemara was relatively low at 9mms.

Abbeyknockmoy weather recorder, Brendan Geraghty, told the Connacht Tribune that over the course of last Saturday and Sunday his rainfall reading came in at 0.53 inches (13.5mms), which he said was ‘significant’ in terms of grass growth.

“I suppose the really good thing about the rainfall over the weekend was that it didn’t fall in one heavy downpour which would led to a lot of run-off.

“It came in the form of fairly persistent light rain or drizzle over a period of time which the ground was able to absorb gradually. It certainly was a big help for growth and was very, very welcome,” said Brendan Geraghty.

However, he did point out that the weekend’s rainfall would have absolutely no impact on river water levels as all of it would be absorbed into the soil.

As for the coming week, there seems to be general agreement among all the main forecasters that there will be very little by way of notable rainfall over the 6/7 days.

The only long-term prediction of any worthwhile rainfall is from the yr.no (Norwegian) forecast who have guided Friday, July 27, as a day when rainfall amounts could exceed 10mms.

The BBC’s ‘month ahead’ outlook does offer some hope of respite from the drought conditions for more western areas of the UK and Ireland, as the high pressure shifts ever so slowly to the East, over the first two weeks of August.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and  county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.