Deciphering extreme rainfall and historical floods at Easkey on the west coast of Ireland

Abstract

AbstractA written account of two flood events in 1844 and 1877 at Easkey in Co. Sligo on the west coast of Ireland is explored with several meteorological datasets and historical newspaper accounts. Gridded daily precipitation fields for Ireland for the late twentieth century are analysed to assess rainfall extremes and most probable month of the annual maximum. Historic rainfall datasets are analysed to corroborate the account of the floods. A lot of rainfall data have survived from the nineteenth century, but there is still an imperfect match between the written account and the old weather records.