{"id":133325,"date":"2025-10-20T06:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T06:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/133325\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T06:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T06:04:10","slug":"ireland-weather-el-nino-phenomenon-could-create-climate-whiplash-for-irish-winters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/133325\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland weather: El Ni\u00f1o phenomenon could create \u2018climate whiplash\u2019 for Irish winters"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Irish winters have historically been cold, calm and dry, El Ni\u00f1o \u2013 a warming of water temperatures around the Pacific Equator \u2013 could trigger warmer, stormier and wetter winters.<\/p>\n

Met \u00c9ireann climate scientist Dr Tido Semmler has, with overseas colleagues, published research on the future impact of El Ni\u00f1o in the journal Nature Communications.<\/p>\n

\u201cClimate whiplash means change between extreme conditions,\u201d Dr Semmler said.<\/p>\n

\"Laura<\/p>\n

Laura Pla and Patricia Llacero from Spain walking in St Stephen’s Green, Dublin. Photo: Tom Honan<\/p>\n

In Ireland, our weather patterns are more heavily impacted by the North Atlantic jet stream, partly influenced by El Ni\u00f1o. Scientists say that influence could increase in the future.<\/p>\n

The new data indicates two possible future scenarios, Dr Semmler said. One is a strengthening El Ni\u00f1o \u2013 leading to cold, calm dry winters, with a greater influence of continental weather.<\/p>\n

The other possibility is a stronger La Ni\u00f1a \u2013 causing stormier, wetter and milder winters, with Atlantic weather a bigger factor.<\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s very difficult to turn it back to the regime of weaker differences<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The new research also indicates that El Ni\u00f1o changes might result in a global climate \u201ctipping point\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dr Semmler said: \u201cIn the context of El Ni\u00f1o and La Ni\u00f1a, it\u2019s very difficult, if not impossible, to turn it back to the regime of weaker differences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland must introduce adaptive measures, said Dr Semmler, including stronger coastal and river flooding defences against rainfall and storms, as well as better drainage systems.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s no immediate panic \u2013 with predictions this could start happening in the second half of the century.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, there was severe flooding in parts of Northern Ireland yesterday after hours of heavy rainfall.<\/p>\n

Some Newcastle, Co Down, residents have been unable to leave their homes after a deluge. Locals said it is the worst flooding they have seen in 40 years.<\/p>\n

\n

There\u2019s no sign of a storm but there will be spells of wet and blustery weather<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

One said three days\u2019 worth of rain had fallen in a matter of hours. Ireland is set for \u201cunsettled weather,\u201d this week, according to Met \u00c9ireann meteorologist Aoife Kealy.<\/p>\n

Ms Kealy said: \u201cThere\u2019s no sign of a storm but there will be spells of wet and blustery weather. Low pressure will stay in charge for the next week or so. That basically means we\u2019ll have showers and longer spells of rain today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Flooding<\/p>\n

Flooding on Sunningdale Drive off the Tullybrannigan Road in Newcastle, Co Down. Photo: Declan Roughan \/ Press Eye<\/p>\n

News in 90 Seconds – October 20th<\/p>\n

There is also the possibility of more showers tomorrow, while more wet weather is expected for the rest of the week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might be a bit breezy as well but there\u2019s nothing in the models to indicate it will be a storm,\u201d Ms Kealy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we move to Friday and next weekend, it will stay unsettled and a bit cooler, with a few possible showers around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Storm Bram \u2013 named after Bram Stoker, the 19th century Dublin author behind Dracula \u2013 has been making headlines but so far it\u2019s swerving Ireland, Met \u00c9ireann said.<\/p>\n

However, Britain is facing 112kmh winds and snow, with -6C temperatures forecast ahead of Halloween.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Irish winters have historically been cold, calm and dry, El Ni\u00f1o \u2013 a warming of water temperatures…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,52,13,14,11850,6,11,12,2188,15,16,5602,5,954,7,8,443,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-133325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-dublin","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-halloween","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-latest-news","16":"tag-latestnews","17":"tag-laura-lynott","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-met-eireann","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-northern-ireland","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories","25":"tag-weather","26":"tag-world","27":"tag-world-news","28":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}