Weather review 2025: Éowyn was 'one level below a hurricane' 

Wind speeds reached the second highest level of severity in county Mayo during Storm Éowyn last January.

Met Éireann’s Annual Climate Statement for 2025 revealed that mean wind speeds reached violent storm force 11 at its weather station at Knock Airport on Friday, January 24, when Storm Éowyn caused widespread power outages, extensive felling of trees and infrastructure damage.

Force 11 is the second highest recording on the Beaufort Scale, which tracks mean wind speed, below hurricane force 12, which was recorded at Malin Head, Co Donegal and Mace Head, Co Galway on the night of the storm.

There were 258 rain days at the weather station at Newport in West Mayo during 2025. Rain days occur when 0.2mm or more of rainfall is recorded. There were 216 wet days at the same station - wet days are when there is more than 1.0mm of rainfall.

Ireland West Airport recorded its wettest April day on record on Friday, April 18, but it was also the third warmest April on record overall, with the airpott having its joint warmest April overall, tying with 2011.

The month of May at the station in Belmullet was the sunniest on record. The lowest number of dull days, which are days with less than half an hour of sunshine, was recorded at Ireland West Airport. The number was 26. 

Met Éireann said the average annual air temperature for Ireland in 2025 was 11.14 °C, which is 1.59°C above the 1961-1990 long-term average (LTA) or 0.97°C above the most recent 1991-2020 LTA.

This makes 2025 the second warmest year on record, which is only slightly behind the warmest year in 2023 (11.21 °C) and only the second time with a mean over 11 °C.

The last four years are now the four warmest years on record and seven of the top ten warmest years have occurred since 2005.