Ireland's Climate
Ireland has a cool temperate oceanic climate.
Factors that affect Irelands Climate
- Distance from the Seas and Oceans.
- Latitude.
- Altitude and Aspect
Distance from Seas and Oceans
Ireland is an island surrounded by an Ocean and a Sea. The main influence on Irelands climate is the Atlantic Ocean and the warm North Atlantic Current (NAC). Our seas heat up slowly in the Summer. But they also cool down slowly in winter. Because of this, Irish coastline with sea winds tend to usually not get too hot in Summer or too cold in Winter.
Land heats up quickly in summer and cools down quickly in winter. This cause inland Irish areas to have a slightly colder Winter and a slightly warmer Summer, than the Irish coastal areas.
Latitude
The latitude of a place is its distance from the equator. The surface of the earth is not evenly heated. The further from the equator you are the colder it gets.
- The suns rays are parallel. They carry equal; amounts of heat before reaching the earth.
- Near the equator, the sun shines from almost directly overhead. Sunrays are concentrated on small areas, where they give off great heat.
- The atmosphere acts like a sponge and absorbs some of the heat from the suns rays. Slanted sun rays have to travel through a greater depth of atmosphere and lose more heat before they reach earth.
- Because the earth is curved, places far from the equator get very slanted sun rays. these rays are spread out over wide areas, so they give very little heat.
Altitude and Aspect
Smaller areas may experience speicial climatic condition sof their own. These local climates are influenced by altitude and aspect.
1. Altitude
Altitude means height above sea level. The higher the place is, the colder it gets. Temperatures decrease by roughly 1 degree Celsius for every 150 meteres climbed, this is lapse rate.
Increased altitude also means more rainfall. Annual amounts of precipitation increase by between 100 mm and 200 mm on exposed slopes for every 100m rise in altitude.
2. Aspect
Aspect is the direction in which a sloppe faces . The sun rises in the east, travels in a southerly direction and sets in the west. For the northern hemisphere, this means that south-facing slopes are warmer than north-facing slopes.
Aspect will aslo affest precipitation levels. Slopes facing the seas experience sea winds and therefore higher levels of rainfall called Releif rainfall.