Ireland\u2019s hottest May day would not have happened without human-caused climate change, scientists who studied last month\u2019s record-breaking temperatures have found. <\/p>\n
The record for the hottest day in May<\/a> was broken by more than 2 degrees in a sudden surge of heat they described as \u201cremarkable\u201d and \u201cdownright alarming\u201d. <\/p>\n The previous high temperature record for May was 28.4 degrees, logged at Ardfert, Co Kerry on May 31st, 1997. That was before the \u201cunusually early\u201d spell of heat from May 23rd-27th last. <\/p>\n On May 26th the weather station at Shannon Airport recorded 30.6 degrees. That record may also fall as seven other stations are believed to have broken it with provisional temperatures as high as 30.9 degrees. <\/p>\n Their data is still being verified but, if confirmed, would mean the old record was broken by 2.5 degrees \u2013 a surge the scientists say was not possible without climate change. <\/p>\n \u201cWe are starting to see higher temperatures earlier in the season,\u201d said Dr Claire Bergin, researcher for the Wasitus project at the Icarus Climate Research Centre at Maynooth University. <\/p>\n \u201cWhile this may come as a welcome few days by the beach for some, the fact is these record-breaking May temperatures were not possible without human-caused global warming. It is downright alarming to break 30 degrees in May in Ireland.\u201d <\/p>\n Wasitus, which stands for Weather Attribution Science Irish Operational User Service, is a project aimed at rapidly assessing extreme weather events to understand what role climate change played.<\/p>\n [\u00a0What is El Ni\u00f1o and what does it mean for Ireland’s weather?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n It is part of the World Weather Attribution (WWA) global network of climate scientists and meteorologists. <\/p>\n Paul Moore, a climatologist at Met \u00c9ireann<\/a> which supports the project, said the temperature spikes in May, which came as \u2018heat dome\u2019 sat over much of Europe, showed the impact for Ireland of being part of a warmer world. <\/p>\n