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Climate status of Ireland 2020

Why do we need climate observations?

  • To understand how and why climate is changing.
  • To inform responses and actions to mitigate climate change and adapt to its impacts in Ireland.
  • To contribute to European and global analysis of climate observations and enable comparison of climate changes in Ireland with those across Europe and the rest of the world.
  • As a party to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its 2015 Paris Agreement Ireland has committed to carry out observations of the climate across the atmosphere, ocean and terrestrial domains as part of the Global Climate Observing System.
  • The Global Climate Observing System requires the measurement of over 50 Essential Climate Variables in the atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial domains.
Ireland mean surface air temperature anomaly (showyourstripes)

Annual air temperature difference (1900 - 2019) compared to the mean value calculated over the period 1961 to 1990.
(More information on climate stripes: https://showyourstripes.info)

How are climate variables measured?

Observations of essential climate variables are made by sensors and instruments deployed by people on land, rivers and lakes, in the seas around our coast, below the surface of the ocean and in our atmosphere. These are complemented by space-based observations from satellites including the EU Copernicus system.

The data collected are archived, quality controlled, and analysed by various organisations to understand our climate and how it is changing.

Overview of the current climate of Ireland

Read the full Climate Status of Ireland 2020 report and further in-depth observations of climate variables.

Climate Status Report 2020

As an island on the western boundary of Europe facing the Atlantic Ocean, Ireland is ideally positioned to measure and assess ongoing climate change. The first Status of Ireland’s Climate report was published in 2013. This second status report provides an update, incorporating new datasets and analyses as well as reporting ongoing climate observations over the last 7 years.