The Unusual Irish Washout Of Early April 1909

[Weather-history]

This was an unusual event that if by looking at the charts alone you would have never guessed that a large part of Ireland got a soaking on the 2nd and 3rd of April 1909

Here's the chart for that day.

And yet here are the rainfall totals

It is believed that 3,558,210,000 tons or 797,000 million gallons of water fell on the island ovet that two day period.

1.978 inches of rain fell in 37 hours on Dublin and yet the barometric pressure never dipped below 1019mbs

At Glanmire, rain fell for 48 hours continuously amounting to 3.73 inches

At Moate, 2.36 inches fell.

1.38 inches of rain at Killarney on the 3rd

1.99 inches of rain at Seaforde on the 3rd

From the Irish Times

"Skibbereen presented the appearance of a town built in a lake from one to three miles wide. Three-fourths of the population have had to desert the basement floors and are living upstairs. Several of the merchants have had to remove the goods from the shops to the living rooms overhead and in the poorer quarters great suffering and misery are being caused. In the laneways, where the houses have no upper apartments, the poor people have had to be rescued with cars and carts. They were taken yesterday to the town hall, where fires were lighted and food provided for them, and sleeping accomodation for the night was arranged. a number sheep and cattle have been swept away by the flood and several coal barges ad boats moored near the town have either been carried away or sunk."

[Andy Bown]

Looks like there would have been unstable air in the Northerly flow which interacted with the temperature difference between land and sea to produce those downpours on the coast.

[Somerset Squall]

Thanks for that Mr_Data, certainly surprising given the chart there. It looks like a mild, damp south-southwesterly, certainly wouldn't have expected that rainfall with high pressures such as those.

[Andy Bown]

unstable air in the Northerly flow

damp south-southwesterly

Guess which idiot completely misread the isobars !