We must “learn to live” with increasing levels of rainfall in Ireland due to climate change, a leading expert has warned.

A new study has found rainfall intensity has increased by 20% in the UK and Ireland due to human-caused climate change.

The intensity increase was found when comparing 14 named storm events in the two jurisdictions over the last year to if they had occurred in pre-industrial times when the planet was 1.2 degrees cooler.

On Newstalk Breakfast today, climatologist John Sweeney said people in the Midlands would “certainly agree” with the study’s findings after experiencing lots of rain this week.

“This particular study concerns what the anecdotal stories are out there,” he said.

“It’s the result of an attributional study that looks at what the likelihood of those events, in a busy storm season over the last nine months, would have been in pre-industrial times and with 1.2 degrees of warming.

“It comes up with a figure that the kind of storm events we’ve had this winter, in terms of rainfall yield, would have been a once-in-50-year event before we started messing around with the atmosphere.”

A huge puddle of rainfall on a farm. Image: Panther Media GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo

Prof Sweeney said rainfall yield is on an upward trajectory.

“Now it’s a one in five-year event and if we go to two degrees of warming it will be a one in three-year event,” he said.

“It’s telling us that the kind of things we expected to happen in the future are happening around us now and they are happening with consequences for us here in Ireland, in terms of flood events and extreme rainfall events.

“It’s something we’re going to have to learn to live with.”

'Perfect storm'

Prof Sweeney said it’s “no surprise” to see rainfall intensity on the rise.

“We’ve had lovely heatwaves in Ireland throughout the year too, last week even, so the land has been very warm,” he said.

“The uplift of air is substantially driving up rainfall production and, also, the oceans have been giving storms that greater capacity to hold water vapour.

“It’s a perfect storm for rainfall potential with all the drivers happening.”

The number of days of rainfall recorded in Ireland last year ranged from 283 at Knock Airport in Mayo and 212 at Phoenix Park in Dublin.

You can listen back here:

Main image: A man struggles along a road on a day of high wind and heavy rainfall in Co Donegal in August 2018. Picture by: Anna Hidalgo-Wayman / Alamy Stock Photo