Climate
Limerick's climate is classified as Temperate Oceanic (Köppen Cfb). Met Éireann maintains a climatological weather station at Shannon Airport, 20 kilometres west of the city in County Clare. Shannon Airport records an average of 977 millimetres of precipitation annually, most of which is rain. Limerick has a mild climate, with the average daily maximum in July of 20 °C (68 °F) and the average daily minimum in January of 3 °C (37 °F). The highest temperature recorded was 31.6 °C (88.9 °F) in 1995, and the lowest −11.4 °C (11.5 °F) in 2010. Limerick is the cloudiest city in the state, averaging only 1,295 sunshine hours annually, 3.5 hours of sunshine every day. There are on average 59 days of no recordable sunshine, 6 days of thunder, 19 days of hail and 8 days of snow per year. Shannon Airport is located by the ocean at an altitude of 14 metres, so snow would be less common at the station than in the city itself.
| Climate data for Shannon Airport Weather Observing Station 1981ñ2010 | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 14.8 (58.6) |
15.5 (59.9) |
20.2 (68.4) |
23.5 (74.3) |
28.0 (82.4) |
31.6 (88.9) |
30.6 (87.1) |
29.8 (85.6) |
26.1 (79.0) |
22.3 (72.1) |
18.2 (64.8) |
15.3 (59.5) |
31.6 (88.9) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 8.8 (47.8) |
9.2 (48.6) |
11.1 (52.0) |
13.3 (55.9) |
16.0 (60.8) |
18.5 (65.3) |
19.8 (67.6) |
19.6 (67.3) |
17.7 (63.9) |
14.3 (57.7) |
11.1 (52.0) |
9.0 (48.2) |
14.0 (57.2) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 6.0 (42.8) |
6.2 (43.2) |
7.8 (46.0) |
9.5 (49.1) |
12.1 (53.8) |
14.6 (58.3) |
16.4 (61.5) |
16.2 (61.2) |
14.2 (57.6) |
11.2 (52.2) |
8.3 (46.9) |
6.3 (43.3) |
10.7 (51.3) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 3.2 (37.8) |
3.2 (37.8) |
4.5 (40.1) |
5.7 (42.3) |
8.2 (46.8) |
11 (52) |
13 (55) |
12.7 (54.9) |
10.8 (51.4) |
8.2 (46.8) |
5.5 (41.9) |
3.6 (38.5) |
7.4 (45.3) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −11.2 (11.8) |
−9.8 (14.4) |
−7.8 (18.0) |
−4.1 (24.6) |
−0.9 (30.4) |
1.5 (34.7) |
6.0 (42.8) |
2.9 (37.2) |
1.3 (34.3) |
−2 (28.4) |
−6.6 (20.1) |
−11.4 (11.5) |
−11.4 (11.5) |
| Rainfall mm (inches) | 102.3 (4.028) |
76.2 (3) |
78.7 (3.098) |
59.2 (2.331) |
64.8 (2.551) |
69.8 (2.748) |
65.9 (2.594) |
82.0 (3.228) |
75.6 (2.976) |
104.9 (4.13) |
94.1 (3.705) |
104.0 (4.094) |
977.6 (38.488) |
| % humidity | 81 | 75 | 71 | 64 | 63 | 65 | 68 | 68 | 69 | 75 | 81 | 83 | 72 |
| Avg. precipitation days | 16 | 12 | 14 | 11 | 12 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 12 | 16 | 15 | 15 | 159 |
| Avg. snowy days | 2.3 | 2.3 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 7.9 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 49.6 | 65.6 | 100.0 | 153.1 | 180.0 | 156.0 | 140.5 | 140.1 | 117.0 | 89.9 | 60.0 | 43.4 | 1,295.2 |
| Source: | |||||||||||||
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Famous quotes containing the word climate:
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“If often he was wrong and at times absurd,
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—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)