Dublin Airport Reports Equivalent Of 25% Of Annual Rainfall In 1st 17 Days Of August - Reuters

[hatrack]

DUBLIN - Ireland faced further flooding on Monday after a second successive weekend of torrential summer rain drove people from their homes, blocked road and rail links and threatened to destroy farmers' crops. The weather station at Dublin Airport has recorded 177.7 millimetres of rain in the first 17 days of this month, already more than double the August average and quarter of what might be expected in the course of an entire year.

With water tables already high, Ireland's national meteorological service Met Eireann warned further heavy rain on Monday meant there was a risk of more flooding. There has been little let up in the poor weather since Aug. 9 when 76.2 millimetres of rain fell on Dublin -- a new record for the month of August and the second highest daily rate of rainfall in any month since records began. Over 100 people were evacuated from their homes in the south eastern town of Carlow on Sunday after a river burst its banks.

Padraig Cahill, Civil Defence Officer for Carlow County Council, told national broadcaster RTE on Monday that flood waters in the town had been as deep as five feet (1.5 metres) and that further rain would threaten other homes nearby.

The Irish Farmers' Association said Ireland's main crop of 250,000 hectares of winter wheat and spring barley was also at risk because of high water content in the grain, crop damage and fields too water-logged for heavy harvesting machinery.

EDIT

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49845/story.htm

[hedgehog]

1. I live in Upstate New York, and I believe that by the time my children are my age,

this area will be a temperate rain forest. I expect more snow every year from now on until the year it doesn't snow but instead rains year round. It wouldn't be bad, but this year three hailstorms in August wiped out my county's onion crop. It's almost as if each storm tracked to get the onions that were missed in the previous storm(s)! Farmers here have never seen anything like this!

http://oswegocountytoday.com/news/oswego-news/2008/07/31/state-agriculture-commissioner-tours-onion-devastation/