Weather data at Armagh Observatory has confirmed that the combined spring months of March, April and May were the sunniest and the warmest on record there.

A total of 617.1 hours of strong sunshine across the three months proved to be the highest reading ever at the location, with an average temperature of 10.7 C also reaching the same heights.

It was also the sunniest ever month of May at Armagh.

The four sunniest springs at Armagh are now spring 2025 (617.1 hours), spring 2020 (567.4 hours), spring 2007 (554.3 hours), and spring 2008 (547.6 hours).

placeholder image — People enjoying the sunshine in Antrim Castle Gardens back in April as Northern Ireland recorded the sunniest spring on record

That data is on trend with the rest of Northern Ireland which had its sunniest ever spring with 614.3 hours, eclipsing the highest figures set in 2020 (559.0 hours). Furthermore, the mean temperature this spring in Northern Ireland was 9.78C, the warmest on record.

There were also multiple days in spring in which some parts of the province reached 20 degrees Celsius or warmer, which is far warmer than the norm.

In Armagh, last month proved to be the sunniest ever May on record there with 285.4 hours of strong sunshine – the previous record was 254.1 hours in May 1901.

The sunniest day at Armagh was May 13th with 14.9 hours of strong sunshine, followed by 14.3 hours on the 14th, and 14.2 hours on both the 15th and 17th.

Additionally, following the record-breaking warm May 2024 (average temperature approximately 13.9C) and the earlier historic record May 1809 (13.8 C), this May, with a mean temperature of approximately 13.2C, was much warmer than average.

The three warmest days, that is, those with the highest maximum temperatures, were the 21st (23.2C), the 18th (23.0C), and the 16th (22.7C). A maximum temperature of 23.4C on April 30 remains the warmest day of the year so far at Armagh.

Data also showed that due to a further consequence of relatively clear skies in May, there was a relatively large number of nights with ground frost in Armagh, that is, nights when the grass minimum temperature fell to less than or equal to zero degrees Celsius. The three hardest ground frosts occurred on the 5th, 9th, and 8th of May, with respective grass-minimum temperatures of -6.2C, -2.9C and -2.4C.

Like Northern Ireland, the rest of the UK also experienced its warmest spring on record with a mean temperature of 10.23C in England, 8.23C in Scotland and 9.69C in Wales.