Raphoe was Ireland's 'wettest place' in July

Raphoe had Ireland’s wettest weather station in July.

Flash flooding hit the east Donegal town on July 22 with some surrounding towns also affected.

Home owners and businesses were left to count the cost of the flooding as locals and emergency services battled to fight the tides.

Water flowed through some premises and left a devastating trail. A funding package of €125,000 was approved by the government last week .

On July 22, the automatic weather station at Raphoe showed 76.4mm on July 22 - the highest anywhere in the country.

Raphoe automatic weather station rainfall graph for 22 July 2023. Photo: Met Éireann

Malin Head had over 200 per cent of its long term average (LTA) rainfall in July. The Malin Head station broke its 68-year-old July record when recording 192.6mm of rainfall - 238 per cent of its LTA, according to preliminary weather data provided by Met Éireann.

Seventeen primary weather stations operated by Met Éireann had over twice the amount of rainfall recorded in an average July.

Over the past 12 months, Ireland had its wettest October on record in 2022, its wettest March on record earlier this year and now its wettest July on record.

July 2023 had more than four times the amount of rain observed in July 2022 and more than twice that observed in July 2021.

A Met Éireann spokesperson said: “According to Met Éireann’s latest monthly forecast, the current meteorological setup looks set to continue into the early days of August.

“The North Atlantic jet stream is forecast to remain south of the country, meaning it’s likely low pressure systems with associated active weather fronts will continue to dominate our weather.”