Kilkenny Weatherman - a  local hero with a global sensibility 

Niall Dollard of Kilkenny Weather (www.kilkennyweather.com) has been fascinated by the weather since boyhood. At the age of 13 he began gathering data about Kilkenny’s local weather in the back garden of his family home in Green’s Hill with his brother Kyran. Today,  over 40 years later he continues to monitor and log the Marble City’s local weather in that same garden.  

He is a self-confessed “weather nerd” and one of a network of citizen scientists who record how our national weather is changing at a local and personal level.    

After the closure of the Kilkenny Met Eireann weather station in 2008,  Niall volunteered to supply his weather observations to the national service so that their unbroken record of Kilkenny weather - going back to 1957 - would continue. He now submits a monthly report to the service about local temperatures and a daily record of city rainfall levels. He believes strongly that “There is a need for local weather and climate information,” and carries out his civic meteorological service in a diligent and understated manner without any financial gain.    

Niall uses a variety of equipment to record the air and ground temperature, rainfall, snowfall and wind speed at his city centre home, including traditional thermometers, a copper gauge and a webcam - facing the river - that updates with a fresh image every 5 minutes. Since he began keeping records in the ‘80s he has observed global warming in action, logging a gradual increase of 1 ° C  with annual mean temperatures rising to 10.5°C from 9.5° C.       

Recording the weather in Kilkenny has roots in local history. As early as 1682 a Mr John Kevan maintained a weather diary on behalf of the Duke of Ormond while the national record (33.3° C) for the hottest day was recorded on the 26 June in 1887 at Kilkenny Castle, a year after records officially stated in 1886.  

Niall thinks this record may soon fall: “This coming week has shown how the temperature is rising in Spain and Portugal and the continent. So, these heatwaves we expect will be pretty regular events; they are already becoming regular anyway. There will be more of a temperature increase in Ireland as well.”  

Niall predicts that even if the national record doesn’t fall during the current heatwave, that it will be broken within the next 5 to 10 years. He says weather modelling also predicts less rainfall with drier spring and summers for the South East region, more flooding and an increased probability of storms and hurricanes reaching Ireland off the Atlantic. 

For Niall, observing how local plants are behaving also offers an insight into the warming climate. He observes: “Plants basically can tell you a lot about climate change,” citing the ever earlier appearance of the daffodils each spring and events like the premature blooming of the giant cherry-blossom tree at John’s Bridge as indicators of Kilkenny’s escalating temperature.  

For Niall, these events prove that global warming is happening in an accelerated timeframe. He states: “The problem is that it’s happening too fast. ... It’s not localised. It’s a global phenomenon. 

“The earth is warming an we’ve got to do something to solve it.”