Did Northern Ireland have a summer, really?

Killowen in County Down on the hottest day of the summer

Summer... was it as bad as we thought?

"What summer?" I hear you say; something so many people have asked me over the last few months.

The kids are back at school and mad traffic has returned to our roads.

Do you feel cheated?

A rare sunny day in July in Belfast

The Met Office released its provisional figures for the months of June, July and August on Monday.

The stats for Northern Ireland suggest temperatures were a little cooler than average.

The average maximum temperature was 17.4C, which is 0.6C below the long-term average, taken over the period 1991 to 2020.

This provisionally makes it the coolest summer since 2015.

It has been dull with just 82% of the average sunshine, or 344 hours.

Portaferry in August

And rainfall surprisingly has been close to the average, even slightly below in places.

Armagh was the driest county over the summer with 81% of the average rainfall and Fermanagh the wettest, with 114% of the average.

August was the wettest of the three months, particularly across counties Tyrone and Fermanagh, where rainfall was almost 1.5 times the average.

June saw some hay making weather in County Fermanagh

You might think this cannot be right - "it was so wet", "it rained all the time" and "it wasn't that warm".

Well, we did have some days with sunshine and high temperatures.

The highest temperature of the summer occurred at Magilligan, County Londonderry, on 24 June and farmers made the most of these scarce warm, dry days to make hay.

After delving into the numbers further and asking some different questions I think I know why our perception does not match the stats.

July showers in County Tyrone

We lacked a prolonged spell of dry weather.

There were only a handful of completely dry days across Northern Ireland as a whole.

So although rainfall amounts may have been small, it did rain on many days.

This has a major impact on how we use the weather and therefore our perception.

The continued risk of rain can limit outdoor activities, school holidays, sports days, holidaying locally and getting outdoor jobs done around the house.

Also the lack of sunshine impacts significantly on how the day feels to us.

We do not mind it being a bit cool if we can feel the sun on our skin.

Silver lining, less sun cream to buy?

A beach in Ballycastle during August

Fine weather conditions are usually brought about by areas of high pressure where winds will often be light.

Much of summer 2024 was dominated by low pressure areas and therefore quite breezy, if not windy at times, and that of course makes it feel cooler again.

The figures do not lie but sometimes you have to look beyond the top line.