{"id":282218,"date":"2026-02-05T14:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T14:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/282218\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T14:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T14:12:07","slug":"why-is-it-so-wet-ireland-is-collateral-damage-in-the-battleground-between-weather-systems-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/282218\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is it so wet? Ireland is collateral damage in the battleground between weather systems \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Much discussion around the current floods<\/a> has focused on predicting what rain is coming and where, but that still leaves the question of why it has been unrelentingly wet in the usually drier eastern half of the country. <\/p>\n

For an answer to that, we have to look far above and beyond the clouds overhead. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s about \u201cclashes\u201d and \u201cbattlegrounds\u201d says Paul Moore, climatologist with Met \u00c9ireann,<\/a> as the many forces that shape our weather<\/a> collide and get knocked out of shape. <\/p>\n

High above \u2013 in both latitude and altitude \u2013 is the polar vortex, a wide band of cold air dozens of kilometres up that swirls around in alternating westerly and easterly directions.<\/p>\n

When it\u2019s in its easterly phase, as it is at the moment, it tends to be weaker. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more prone to disruption and it wobbles and stretches,\u201d says Moore. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt has stretched into North America and enabled a cold air mass to come down from the Arctic.\u201d <\/p>\n

Much of Canada and the US has been snowbound and freezing as a result but there is a knock-on effect for us as it pushes lots of extra-cold air out into the Atlantic. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Never seen anything like this\u2019: north Dublin community reacts to floodingOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Jet streams, other bands of air or \u201crivers of air\u201d also flow continuously around the earth. <\/p>\n

The one influencing Ireland picks up whatever is the prevailing air mass coming across the Atlantic. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s often mild \u2013 influenced by warm air moving upwards from the Caribbean and the gulf stream \u2013 and sometimes wild when the warm air from those places is full of hurricane-fuelled fury. <\/p>\n

At the moment, the dominance of warm air is being challenged by the cold air being pushed down by the polar vortex. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat clash between the warm air and the cold has fired up the jet stream coming across the Atlantic,\u201d says Moore. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s moving faster and picking up the low-pressure systems [associated with higher rainfall] on the approach to Europe. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, it\u2019s being displaced to the south because there are high pressure systems to our north and east. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why the rain is coming from the south and affecting the east and southeast. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Storm Chandra: Does climate change make small streams and more frequent flooding new risks?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in the battleground between the warm air from the south and the cold air from the east.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis high pressure is very cold dense air and it\u2019s blocking the systems moving up from the south so that they are stalled and the rain can\u2019t clear away.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UK Met Office has a similar explanation for its similarly sodden citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cCold plunges across North America have helped to strengthen the jet stream,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs that cold, dense air moves southwards, it enhances the temperature contrast between warm and cold regions \u2013 one of the key factors that energises the jet. <\/p>\n

\u201cA stronger jet stream acts a bit like a conveyor belt, rapidly developing and then propelling areas of low pressure towards northwest Europe. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, high pressure has also established over parts of northern Europe. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis has created a \u2018blocked\u2019 pattern, preventing any significant shift in the position of the jet stream and limiting our chances of more settled, drier weather developing.\u201d <\/p>\n

So just how limited are the chances of a return to somewhat normal conditions? <\/p>\n

The UK Met Office is cautious. \u201cWhen the atmosphere becomes stuck in this sort of regime, it can take time for the large-scale pattern to reset,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n

Moore expects a break over the weekend but warns that even if the jet stream begins to shift back north, it will still bring normal February rains, just with less concentration on the east and southeast. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Much discussion around the current floods has focused on predicting what rain is coming and where, but that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[849,61,60,1191,43,15950],"class_list":["post-282218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-floods","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-met-eireann","tag-news","tag-weather-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}