Few Irish towns get more rain than Bantry: 1,591 mm a year
Peak summer warmth arrives in July, with afternoons near 19.7°C. January is the wettest month, May the driest. Winters are mild: January nights here are milder than in almost every Irish town. Wet days, with 1 mm of rain or more, come about 164 times a year.
Met Éireann 1991–2020 averages for the town’s own square kilometre.
A year in Bantry at a glance
Each month’s typical high and low, in °C.
What stands out about Bantry’s climate
Compared with Irish towns, with its place among towns and neighbourhoods of 2,500+ in County Cork beside it.
What a year in Bantry feels like
Typical highs and lows by season and by month, from Met Éireann’s 1991–2020 averages.
About 4 air frosts a year
Ground frosts, when the grass drops below 0°C, come on about 25 nights a year. Air frosts come mostly from December, most of all in December (about 1).
Air frosts by month
Average nights below 0°C
Ground frosts by month
Average nights with the grass below 0°C
Counted from Sherkin Island’s daily readings, 2004–2020, 23 km south of Bantry: Met Éireann publishes these for its stations only.
About 1,591 mm of rain a year
January is the wettest month and May the driest. The wettest of 54 towns and neighbourhoods of 2,500+ in County Cork. The wettest month brings about 2.0 times the rain of the driest. Sherkin Island records 1 mm or more on about 164 days a year, and 10 mm on about 32.
Rain by month
Millimetres
Heating a home in Bantry
84% of a year’s heating need falls between October and April. Months averaging under 10°C: November to April.
Degree days add up how far each day’s mean temperature falls below 15.5°C over a year.
Living with Bantry’s climate
What the averages mean for a garden, a free afternoon and a bad-weather day.
Frost comes in about 56% of winters at Sherkin Island, so tender plants can often stay out through winter.
Highs of 17–27°C with lows of 8°C or more: Jun, Jul, Aug and Sep.
Parks & trails →Averages smooth over storms, floods and heatwaves; Bantry’s hazards page covers the risks.
Flood & hazards →Met Éireann’s nearest station: Sherkin Island
Sherkin Island is 23 km south of Bantry, the nearest of the 25 synoptic stations where Met Éireann records the weather around the clock. The station stands 21 m above sea level; Bantry’s centre, 16 m.
| Month | High | Low | Rain | Air frosts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 9.8°C | 5.8°C | 123 mm | 0.9 |
| February | 9.5°C | 5.3°C | 81 mm | 0.9 |
| March | 10.2°C | 5.5°C | 82 mm | 0.8 |
| April | 12.1°C | 6.9°C | 64 mm | 0.1 |
| May | 13.9°C | 9.0°C | 66 mm | 0.0 |
| June | 16.5°C | 11.4°C | 73 mm | 0.0 |
| July | 17.7°C | 12.8°C | 86 mm | 0.0 |
| August | 17.5°C | 12.8°C | 90 mm | 0.0 |
| September | 16.5°C | 11.8°C | 89 mm | 0.0 |
| October | 14.3°C | 10.1°C | 106 mm | 0.0 |
| November | 11.6°C | 7.4°C | 109 mm | 0.2 |
| December | 10.3°C | 6.4°C | 127 mm | 1.1 |
| Year | 13.3°C | 8.8°C | 1,095 mm | 4 |
The table is Sherkin Island’s own record, averaged over 2004–2020 from its daily readings (ours, not a Met Éireann table). The temperatures and rain elsewhere on this page are Met Éireann’s 1 km grid at Bantry itself; the frosts and degree days are this station’s.
How Bantry compares
Against the 321 Irish towns and city neighbourhoods of 2,500 or more, each read from Met Éireann’s grid at its own centre, and its place among towns and neighbourhoods of 2,500+ in County Cork.
Warmer than it used to be
Bantry’s 1991–2020 average is 0.2°C warmer than 1981–2010’s. The biggest change is in April (+0.4°C).
A year’s rain is 1,591 mm, up 7% from 1,481 mm.
Change by month
The two periods share 1991–2010, so the gap is a decade’s step, not the change between two separate 30-year periods.
Bantry weather by month
Average daily high and low, mean temperature and rain, 1991–2020, for the town itself (Met Éireann’s 1 km grid).
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Rain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 9.8°C | 4.1°C | 6.9°C | 182 mm |
| February | 10.2°C | 4.0°C | 7.1°C | 142 mm |
| March | 11.6°C | 4.6°C | 8.1°C | 114 mm |
| April | 13.7°C | 5.8°C | 9.7°C | 102 mm |
| May | 16.2°C | 8.2°C | 12.2°C | 92 mm |
| June | 18.4°C | 10.6°C | 14.5°C | 98 mm |
| July | 19.7°C | 12.4°C | 16.0°C | 108 mm |
| August | 19.6°C | 12.3°C | 15.9°C | 113 mm |
| September | 18.1°C | 10.8°C | 14.4°C | 121 mm |
| October | 14.8°C | 8.5°C | 11.7°C | 166 mm |
| November | 11.9°C | 6.0°C | 8.9°C | 173 mm |
| December | 10.3°C | 4.6°C | 7.4°C | 179 mm |
| Year | 14.5°C | 7.6°C | 11.1°C | 1,591 mm |
How much a month can swing
December swings the most: over 17 years its average ranged from 4.0°C (2010) to 10.3°C (2015). August is the most reliable, staying within 1.7°C.
Where Bantry’s numbers come from
Averages over 30 years, not a forecast: the town’s own from Met Éireann’s grid, the frosts and degree days from its nearest station.
- Temperature and rain: Met Éireann’s 1991–2020 averages on its 1 km grid (Climatological Notes 22 and 23), read at the grid point nearest Bantry’s population centre (0.3 km away).
- Weather station: the nearest of Met Éireann’s 25 synoptic stations, Sherkin Island, 23 km south, from Met Éireann’s station list.
- Frosts and degree days: Sherkin Island’s daily readings from Met Éireann (clidata.met.ie), 2004–2020, averaged by month: a month counts when 27 or more of its days were read (rain and sunshine: every day), and a figure needs 10 such years.
- Then and now: Met Éireann’s 1981–2010 averages on the same 1 km grid, at the same point.
- Altitudes: the town’s ground from the Copernicus GLO-30 surface model (a few metres high in built-up places), the station’s from Met Éireann.
- Comparisons: every Irish town and city neighbourhood of 2,500 or more, read the same way; the five city totals are left out.
- Not on this page: sunshine at this station, snow and wind. Met Éireann publishes none of them on a grid; the frosts here are its nearest station’s, not the town’s own.
Met Éireann 30-year averages · Met Éireann open data. Under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).
Questions about Bantry’s climate
How warm does Bantry get in summer?
July is the warmest month, with average highs of 19.7°C.
How cold does Bantry get in winter?
The coldest nights come in February, averaging 4.0°C. At Sherkin Island, the nearest Met Éireann station, the air drops below 0°C on about 4 nights a year (2004–2020).
How much rain does Bantry get?
About 1,591 mm a year, more than almost every Irish town. January is the wettest month (182 mm) and May the driest (92 mm).
How sunny is it?
Met Éireann publishes its 1991–2020 sunshine averages for its weather stations only, not on the 1 km grid this page reads, so there is no sunshine figure for Bantry itself. Its nearest synoptic station is Sherkin Island.
Are these figures for Bantry itself?
Partly. The temperatures and rain are Met Éireann’s 1991–2020 averages on its 1 km grid, read at Bantry’s population centre; the frosts, degree days and year-to-year swings are those of Sherkin Island, 23 km south, the nearest of its synoptic stations.
Where do these figures come from?
Met Éireann’s 1991–2020 climate averages, published as maps of Ireland in 1 km squares (Climatological Notes 22 and 23); the page reads the square at Bantry’s population centre. They are 30-year averages, not a forecast.
Copyright Met Éireann. Source: www.met.ie. This data is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. Met Éireann does not accept any liability whatsoever for any error or omission in the data, their availability, or for any loss or damage arising from their use. This material has been modified from the original: TownRatings reads the 1 km grid at each town’s population centre. Today’s forecast for Bantry →
Contains Central Statistics Office (CSO) data, Census 2022, and Tailte Éireann boundaries (CSO Urban Areas, Small Areas, local electoral areas, constituencies), under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).