March was cold

A colder than normal March in all parts of Ireland with temperatures just 1c below the average for the time of year. Rainfall was also below the expected amount for the month running at about 80per cent overall throughout the country. There was a lot of frost at the start of March and then there was snowfall at the end of the month. Tuesday 30th March turned out to be the windiest day of the month with one of the worst storms of perhaps the whole Winter bringing winds of up to 52knots to Malin Head, most of the North and West were battered by wind speeds in the variance of 45 to 50knots and this coupled with the heavy snow in the North and the Midlands brought power lines down and caused a loss of power for up to 50,000 homes in the North for up to 2 days. There was alos a lot of sunshine too in the month and the sunshine hours have been above average for the month overall in Ireland. Average temperatures ranged from 4.5c to 5.6c and the warmest temperature for the month was 15c which was reached in the Dublin area on St Patricks day.