What is the Effect of Climate Change in Ireland?

Ireland is increasingly feeling the impacts of climate change through increasing temperatures and changes in weather patterns. Records in Irish temperature have shown a mean temperature increase of 0.8°C between 1900 and 2015. Already the country has experienced 17 years of the hottest years recorded since 1990 (out of 25 of the warmest years ever recorded). Increases in temperature have also been met with increases in annual rainfall as well as increases in storms and storm surges. Additionally, the number of frost days in Ireland has decreased.

The potential effects projected for Ireland include:

• sea level rise

• more intense storms and rainfall events

• greater river and coastal flooding

• summertime water shortages in the east

• reduced water quality

• changes in  the distribution of plant and animal species.

To view further climate change projections for Ireland please visit the Met Eireann website. Please see the Eco Eye video on “an introduction to climate change and Ireland” in the Environmental Protection Agency website. Supplementary student exercises and lessons are also included.