The green grass of Ireland is due to a cool and rainy climate, but Ireland was especially green this summer. Most weather stations around Ireland recorded record rainfall during June, and the rains let up only slightly during July and August. Weather stations at Mullinger and Cork recorded their wettest summers overall since the 1950s.
Large-scale weather anomalies such as this rarely have a single cause, but one factor is likely the warmest sea-surface temperatures observed on the North Atlantic since the 1950s. The warmer ocean likely led to more evaporation of water. But it also took a strong jet stream blowing that air over Ireland instead of farther north as is more common.
The trend of reduced summer ice in the Arctic Ocean could signal a trend of more cool and rainy summers in Ireland and across northern Europe, provided the jet stream continues to blow across the same region.
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