Hardly any Irish towns see hotter July days than Kells
January mornings start at about 2.3°C. Winter nights are cold: in January they are colder than in 78% of Irish towns. April has warmed most since 1981–2010, part of a 0.2°C rise. Homes need heating from November to April, the months averaging under 10°C.
Met Éireann 1991–2020 averages for the town’s own square kilometre.
A year in Kells at a glance
Each month’s typical high and low, in °C.
What stands out about Kells’s climate
Compared with Irish towns, with its place among towns and neighbourhoods of 2,500+ in County Kilkenny beside it.
What a year in Kells feels like
Typical highs and lows by season and by month, from Met Éireann’s 1991–2020 averages.
About 895 mm of rain a year
October is the wettest month and May the driest. 3rd wettest of 4 towns and neighbourhoods of 2,500+ in County Kilkenny. The wettest month brings about 1.6 times the rain of the driest.
Rain by month
Millimetres
Living with Kells’s climate
What the averages mean for a garden, a free afternoon and a bad-weather day.
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; Kells’s hazards page covers the risks.
Flood & hazards →Met Éireann’s nearest station: Oak Park
Oak Park is 43 km north-east of Kells, the nearest of the 25 synoptic stations where Met Éireann records the weather around the clock. The station stands 62 m above sea level; Kells’s centre, 52 m.
| Month | High | Low | Rain | Air frosts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 8.3°C | 2.3°C | 79 mm | 7.0 |
| February | 8.6°C | 2.1°C | 65 mm | 7.7 |
| March | 10.5°C | 2.5°C | 64 mm | 6.2 |
| April | 13.3°C | 4.4°C | 48 mm | 1.5 |
| May | 16.1°C | 6.9°C | 49 mm | 0.3 |
| June | 18.8°C | 9.6°C | 63 mm | 0.0 |
| July | 20.4°C | 11.5°C | 70 mm | 0.0 |
| August | 19.7°C | 11.2°C | 83 mm | 0.0 |
| September | 17.8°C | 9.3°C | 66 mm | 0.1 |
| October | 14.3°C | 7.0°C | 94 mm | 0.6 |
| November | 10.4°C | 4.1°C | 92 mm | 4.4 |
| December | 8.5°C | 2.6°C | 93 mm | 7.6 |
| Year | 13.9°C | 6.1°C | 864 mm | 35 |
The table is Oak Park’s own record, averaged over 2004–2020 from its daily readings (ours, not a Met Éireann table). The rest of the page is Met Éireann’s 1 km grid at Kells itself: past 40 km, the station’s frosts and sunshine don’t stand for the town.
How Kells 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 Kilkenny.
Warmer than it used to be
Kells’s 1991–2020 average is 0.2°C warmer than 1981–2010’s. The biggest change is in February (+0.4°C).
A year’s rain, 895 mm, is about the same as before.
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.
Kells and its neighbours
Every town next door is within half a degree of Kells in January and July. Choose a measure to recolour the map; tap a town for its climate.
The towns next door, side by side
The nearest towns of 1,000+ within 19 km: a hill, a valley or the sea can make a real difference over a short distance.
| Town | July high | January low | Rain a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kells | 20.3°C | 2.3°C | 895 mm |
| Callan 7.6 km | 20.2°C about the same | 2.3°C about the same | 906 mm |
| Thomastown 9.1 km | 20.4°C about the same | 2.4°C about the same | 954 mm |
| Kilkenny 13 km | 20.4°C about the same | 2.3°C about the same | 871 mm |
Each town’s colour is Met Éireann’s 1 km grid at its own centre, so towns a few kilometres apart can differ.
Kells 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 | 8.7°C | 2.3°C | 5.5°C | 86 mm |
| February | 9.2°C | 2.3°C | 5.8°C | 64 mm |
| March | 11.0°C | 3.2°C | 7.1°C | 64 mm |
| April | 13.4°C | 4.6°C | 9.0°C | 61 mm |
| May | 16.2°C | 7.1°C | 11.7°C | 60 mm |
| June | 18.8°C | 9.8°C | 14.3°C | 66 mm |
| July | 20.3°C | 11.7°C | 16.0°C | 66 mm |
| August | 20.1°C | 11.3°C | 15.7°C | 74 mm |
| September | 17.9°C | 9.4°C | 13.7°C | 70 mm |
| October | 14.4°C | 6.9°C | 10.7°C | 98 mm |
| November | 11.0°C | 4.1°C | 7.5°C | 95 mm |
| December | 9.0°C | 2.7°C | 5.8°C | 92 mm |
| Year | 14.2°C | 6.3°C | 10.2°C | 895 mm |
Where Kells’s numbers come from
Averages over 30 years, not a forecast.
- 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 Kells’s population centre (0.5 km away).
- Weather station: the nearest of Met Éireann’s 25 synoptic stations, Oak Park, 43 km north-east, from Met Éireann’s station list.
- Frosts and degree days: Oak Park’s daily readings, 2004–2020, in the station table only: past 40 km they don’t stand for the town.
- 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, frost days, warm days, snow and wind. Met Éireann publishes no 1991–2020 grid for them, only tables for its stations, so no town has a figure of its own.
Met Éireann 30-year averages · Met Éireann open data. Under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).
Questions about Kells’s climate
How warm does Kells get in summer?
The warmest month is July, when afternoons average 20.3°C.
How cold does Kells get in winter?
January nights average 2.3°C, the coldest of the year. Met Éireann counts frosts only at its weather stations, so there is no frost count for the town itself.
How much rain does Kells get?
About 895 mm a year, less than 56% of Irish towns. October is the wettest month (98 mm) and May the driest (60 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 Kells itself. Its nearest synoptic station is Oak Park.
Are these figures for Kells itself?
Yes: they are Met Éireann’s 1991–2020 averages on its 1 km grid, read at Kells’s population centre. The nearest of its synoptic weather stations, Oak Park, is 43 km north-east.
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 Kells’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 Kells →
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).