Field Trip to Co Mayo on May 20th and 21st for Members
Saturday 20th May
An Observations themed series of talks in the Michael Davitt Museum in Straide Co Mayo on Saturday May 20th. This days events will be structured to allow for travel by train from Dublin and back on the day, with transfers provided from Foxford station. (Depart Dublin Heuston 07:35, Depart Foxford 18:21) .
Sunday 21st May
Activities on Sunday 21st are an add on for those who wish to travel on to Belmullet on Saturday evening using private transport and will include the synoptic station in Belmullet and a visit to Blacksod Lighthouse.
Registration
Please use the eventbrite links below to register for the activities on Saturday 20th and/or Sunday 21st. Registration and attendance is free for members, but there may be some fees to be paid locally for entrance to museums and lunches etc.
Saturday 20th May
Please register below for Saturday 20th, If you are travelling by train to and from Foxford please contact the Society to arrange transfers.
Sunday 21st May
Please register below for Sunday 21st. A Society rate has been agreed with the Broadhaven Bay Hotel in Belmullet, on a first come first server basis. Please check your email for details.
On September 29th 2022 Professor Peter Thorne spoke on the main takeaways from the 6th IPCC Assessment Report.
June 23rd 2022 “Weather wanderings of an Irishman from around the world” by Dr Eddy Graham
In this easy-going talk, Eddy brought us on a personal journey, how the love of the Irish weather and its landscape, experienced as a child in Ireland, helped him make progress on the wider international field of meteorology and climatology.
May 26th 2022. Airwaves from the Tong-Hunga volcanic eruption.
The violent eruption of the large subterranean volcano Tonga—Hunga Ha’apai in the south Pacific Ocean on 15 January 2022 blew an eruption cloud at least 40 km into the atmosphere and generated a pressure wave which radiated outward from the volcano at close to the speed of sound. This pressure wave was detected across the entire globe, and was first detected in the British and Irish Isles some 14 hours after the eruption. This presentation discusses the event, the largest of its kind since the cataclysmic eruption of Krakatoa in 1883.
April 28th 2022. Compound Events: Are We Truly Prepared?
Extreme events are common across the globe and with climate change these events may become more destructive. Historically, these extreme events have been studied as univariate problems with compounding factors not addressed or ignored. This has potentially major consequences when we look at the impacts or try to prepare for future events. This leads to the question are we truly prepared for our future weather events?
23rd March 2022 WMOday Talk: Early Warning and Early Action
Evelyn Cusack,Head of Forecasting Met Éireann
The theme of WMO day. March 23rd for 2022 was “Early Warning and Early Action. Hydrometeorological and Climate Information for Disaster Risk Reduction”, the talk by Met Éireann’s Evelyn Cusack addressed this theme.
Ensemble Forecasting: Probabilities, Chaos and Butterflies“ Dr Alan Hally, Met Éireann , Thursday 24th February 2022
In his talk Alan brought us through the development of ensemble prediction systems from the butterfly effect to the Met Éireann Irish Regional Ensemble Prediction System (IREPS), showing how ensembles can be used operationally to improve warnings of severe weather, using storm Eunice a case study
Thursday 25th November. Dr Eadaoin Doddy Clarke spoke on the prevalence of low-wind-power events in Ireland.
Renewable energy is continuing to grow in Ireland. Energy systems will rely on the intermittent energy from renewable sources. These events are especially challenging when electricity demand is high, for example during winter. It’s important to quantify the duration and frequency of low-power-events, so that we can better manage electricity supply in a future with more wind energy.
Thursday 21st October 2021
Dr Walther Camaro and Dr Ned Dwyer from MaREI , editors of the Status of Ireland’s Climate 2020 gave an overview of the synthesis report of Observations of the Essential Climate Variables in the Irish Climate System, which is part of the Global Climate Observing Systen
Thursday September 30th
Dr Gerry Mulvey from the University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, Texas and Nighthawk Weather LLC, spoke on:
“Changing Sea Surface Temperatures and their Impacts on Tropical Cyclones Reaching Europe“
Thursday 24th June 2021
Dr Ian Gillespie from Maynooth University spoke on the use of sparse reanalysis products to create a distinct analysis of land surface air temperatures since at least 1900, providing an alternative for homogenization of land surface air temperature.
Thursday 22nd April: Guy Westbrook from the Marine Institute spoke on the Irish Sea Level monitoring network
As an Island nation, we are all aware of the concept of sea level, in the context of climate change it is important that we have a sustainable sea level monitoring network. In his talk Guy gave overview of the Marine Institute network at two sites, Union Hall Harbour and Howth Harbour, to enable accurate observations of sea level.
Thursday 25th March 2021
John Garrett of John T Garrett and Associates spoke on ‘The role and duties of the Expert Witness’. This gave an insight into how expert witness principles are applied to forensic meteorology , firstly a talk by John Garrett, then Willemien Phelan from Met Éireann discussed how a meteorologist prepares and presents weather reports as an expert witness.
Thursday 18th February 2021
Dr Saeed Golian of ICARUS, Maynooth University:
“Assessing how North Atlantic sea surface pressure can be used to increase the accuracy of seasonal precipitation prediction for the island of Ireland”
JANUARY 28TH 2021
In 2003 Paul Downes, a native of Mullingar, followed his dream to chase supercell thunderstorms in the hopes of spotting one of mother nature’s most awe-inspiring weather phenomena, the tornado. Little did he know that this, once in a lifetime trip, would change his life. Hundreds of tornadoes later with a degree in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma Paul now works as an operational meteorologist with Met Eireann, however his passion for stormchasing has never waned
Thursday 26th November 2020
lastair McKinstry from ICHEC spoke about “The CMIP6 Experiments: Climate modelling with EC-Earth”:
This talk described the latest climate modelling results from EC-Earth and other models. CMIP6 is the latest Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, which feeds into the UN IPCC report on climate change in 2021, comparing the state of the art of climate models, what they predict and what remains unresolved. CMIP6 has involved all of the world’s major modelling teams, and the work here in Ireland has been led by Dr Paul Nolan.
Thursday 22nd October 2020
When is the day after tomorrow? by Dr Levke Caesar
This talk gave an introduction to tipping points/elements in the climate system and whether we should care about them. The Atlantic Ocean circulation transports massive amounts of heat into the North Atlantic region and a severe slowdown would affect the whole Northern Hemisphere. Climate models predict that the currents will weaken under global warming and recent studies suggest that this weakening has already started.
29th September 2020
Dr Lisa Orme, a Geography lecturer and palaeoclimatologist from the ICARUS research centre at Maynooth University, gave a presentation on:
“Changes in storminess and storm tracks in Europe during recent millennia” A very interesting talk on how it is possible to obtain evidence of past storminess from sand blown from beaches and dunes.
Irish Meteorological Society 