The strongest period of sustained wind experienced at Met Éireann weather recording station in 2023 occurred at Mace Head on the West Connemara coast.
However, contrary to the more usual situation the rainfall was heavier in Athenry than at Mace Head on the verge of the Atlantic.
Mace Head was in the headlines again on the 13th of November with 106 kilometres gusts.
Mace Head is regarded as possibly the windiest of Met Éireann locations. Its exposure to all angles of the Atlantic puts it in the eye of the storms.
But the weather is never simple. Rainfall at the Met Eireann measuring facility in Athenry this year was at a phenomenal 1,555 millimetres – and that was 400 millimetres wetter than the Connemara coast. A staggering 224 millimetres of rainfall in July left the inland fields of Athenry away above Mace Head. In theory that should not happen.
But it is an ill wind that does not do some good. The winds that hit Mace Head will hit the proposed nearby Sceirde Rocks Wind Farm and give clean energy designed to give a better climate.
Máirtín Ó Catháin for Galway Bay FM in Connemara.
