After weeks or torrential rain and vicious Atlantic storms it will come as little surprise that the winter season was one of the wettest and wildest on record.

Met Eireann says the 2013-2014 winter season saw new rainfall records registered in many parts of the country, with Valentia in Co. Kerry recording the most winter rainfall since records began in 1866.

A new record was also set for the largest seas off the coast of Ireland with a wave of 25 metres - or 82 feet - reported at the gas platform off Kinsale in Co. Cork on February 12th.

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) says that between the 1st and 13th February, six depressions developed over the Atlantic - impacting on Ireland and Britain particularly.

The severe storms in Europe coincided with the unusually cold weather in the Eastern United States, which is linked to a "persistent pattern of perturbations to the jet stream".

Meanwhile there were more days of rain (23 days) for the UK in January than for any other month in a series dating back to 1961.

The WMO says that a large part of southern England received twice the average rainfall for January and that it was the windiest December for the UK in records back to 1969.

Milder temperatures for Europe

In contrast, much of Europe saw unusually mild temperatures in the first six weeks of 2014. Météo-France reported that France had the hottest January since 1900, with temperatures on January 9th being 5 to 9 degrees above the January norm.

Germany reported the average national January temperature was 2.8 degrees above the 1961-1990 norm; while in Spain, AEMET reported a monthly average temperature of 2.0 degrees above the long-term average

Much of Russia has also seen above normal temperatures, with the unseasonably warm weather having caused some problems at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games.