Does it always rain in July in Galway? I’m posting this as Galway and Roscommon line out in Pearse stadium in Salthill for the Connacht Football final, in driving wind and rain.
I decided to do a quick scan through my photo libraries to see what the weather was doing in previous years around this time. Turns out that it is a bit of a mixed bag. Bear in mind that, with the pictures below, the rain was so heavy that I made a point of taking a picture of it (as distinct from the normal levels of rain in July that I just ignore).
The last summer I lived in Loughrea was 2004, and this is what the start of July looked like.
July 2005 was a scorcher – I joined the Galway Walking club at the end of June, and I remember climbing in the Twelve Bens in early July in sweltering heat. 2006 – not so much. This picture was taken in Achill in early July 2006 – the sheep are trying to take shelter from driving rain behind the car (who would have thought they’d still need their woolly coat to ward off hypothermia in July).
As you can see, July 2007 wasn’t great either – this picture was taken on Lough Atalia road in the city.
I took this picture in 2008 – there had been a huge downpour, which caused streams to appear amongst the rocks of the Burren as if by magic, and disappear again within a few hours.
There were a few years when the weather was better but the last few years haven’t been great.
The picture above was taken in 2014, as tourists took shelter from the deluge under the Spanish Arch. And don’t get me started on last year either. However, with the unquenchable optimism Irish people possess when it comes to summer, there is a chance that we might have a bit of a heatwave by the end of this week (i.e. it might stop raining).