The longest partial drought on record since 1941 concluded at the end of August, Met Éireann has said in its climate statement for the month.

The partial drought in Oak Park, Co Carlow began on 20 June and lasted 66 days until 24 August.

A partial drought is defined as a period of at least 29 consecutive days where the mean daily rainfall does not exceed 0.2mm.

The previous longest partial drought was 62 days at Roches Point in Co Cork in the summer of 1983.

August was “notably warm and drier than average for most of the month”, Met Éireann said in its latest monthly climate statement.

Mean air temperatures were above long-term averages from 1991 to 2020 across the country.

An average national temperature of 16.27C made it the 9th warmest August on record since 1900, just over 1C above the long-term average.

Four weather stations broke their August maximum temperature on 12 August, including Casement Aerodrome in Dublin which recorded the highest all-time August temperature for Dublin at 31.2C.

Phoenix Park, Co Dublin (30.9C); Dunsany, Co Meath (30.5C); and Gurteen, Co Tipperary (29.3C) were the other stations to break their respective August temperature records.

Meanwhile, ten stations broke their highest August daily minimum temperature record between 12 and 14 August.

Rainfall data placed August 2026 as the 28th driest on record with 86mm.

This represented 84% of the long-term average rainfall for the month of August.

August rainfall ranges from 11.8mm in 1976 to 126.5mm in 1985.

Met Éireann noted a period of low pressure in the third week of August which brought cooler, cloudier and wetter conditions.

This was despite high pressure “dominating proceedings” for much of the month.

It said this change towards the back of the month brought “the first appreciable rainfall for over two months to parts of the Southeast”.

The number of rain days, defined as a day with at least 0.2mm of rainfall, varied from 11 days at Roches Point to 23 days at Belmullet and Knock Airport in Mayo.

The number of wet days ranged from eight days at Moore Park in Co Cork to 19 days at both Newport and Belmullet in Co Mayo.

A wet day is a day with 1.0mm or more of rainfall.

Some stations recorded zero very wet days throughout August, defined as a day with 10.0m or more of rainfall.