12/11/2025
☔️☀️🌧️💨❄️ We talk about it every day, we make comments about it when we meet each other in the street, we watch and listen attentively to daily scientific assessments of it in broadcast on television and radio and other media – weather!
Why are we so obsessed with the subject of the weather? Perhaps because, living on a wind-swept island in the North Atlantic, we don’t so much have a climate as a rapidly changing and varied succession of weather. Accordingly, there are many tasks which are executed promptly or deferred depending on the state of the weather and/or the prospects described by forecasters from the Met. Office. Dark, dreary winters bring on seasonal affective disorder. Wet Summers prompt many families to chill out on sun-kissed islands in the Mediterranean.
On the upside, compared with areas with a less temperate climate, we do not suffer so much because of extreme events such as tornadoes, drought or destructive flooding. However, because of the high level of precipitation, we must design buildings in a certain way in order to prevent destruction caused by an ingress of dampness. And so, houses are predominantly constructed with sloping roofs to drain off excess water and offload heavy snowfalls in Winter.
Historically, we have had some disasters because of freak storms, for example, the “Big Wind” of 1839 which caused widespread destruction and loss of life or the unusually prolonged period of frost and snow in 1947 when this country was slowly recovering from the privations of a world war. Also, successions of poor Summers have resulted in crop failure with serious implications for the economy.
All these issues and more will be addressed by Ms. Caroline Carr, Assistant Curator of Donegal County Museum in a Heritage Talk to be given at The Stables, Sion Mills on Thursday, 20th November at 7.30 p.m. Admission is free and refreshments will be provided.
