Westmeath had coldest and hottest May temperatures

(Above) Dry grass at the harbour in Coolnahay in May.

May of 2020 was no ordinary month for many reasons in Westmeath, one of which was the weather.

Remarkably, the month saw both the hottest and the coldest May temperatures ever recorded in the 70-year history of Met Éireann’s Mullingar weather station.

On Tuesday, May 12, air temperatures plummeted to a frigid -3.2 degrees Celsius at the weather station in Mullingar.

By May 28, however, the mercury had climbed to 25.6 degrees, the highest temperature ever recorded at the station in the month of May.

The highest air temperature in Ireland last month was recorded at the neighbouring Mount Dillon weather station in Roscommon, which was a balmy 26.8 degrees on May 30.

Farmers won’t need to be reminded that it was a particularly dry month, with rainfall levels below average in all areas of the country.

The rainfall level at the Mullingar weather station was a whopping 85% lower than average for May, and it was also one of five weather stations nationally which recorded a ‘dry spell’ of 15 or more consecutive days with little or no precipitation during the month.

At Mount Dillon in Roscommon, rainfall levels were 66% lower than usual.

The average air temperature at the Westmeath weather station was 1.2 degrees higher than average for May, while at Mount Dillon it was 0.8 degrees warmer than usual for the month.

The highest amount of rainfall anywhere in the country was at Cork airport, but the 68.8mm recorded there was still 16% lower than its average rainfall for the month historically.