Technical article
How Much Rain and Sun? Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom
How wet is it, and how much sun do they get?
Picture a couple named Helen and Greg. Both are 58. They like walking, gardens and a long lunch outside when the weather allows. They are looking at the north of Europe and want one thing first. How wet is it, and how much sun do they get?
I went to the weather service of each country. Each one publishes averages for 1991 to 2020. They use different stations, so I have to be careful what I compare.
What the services publish
| Country | Place measured | Rain a year | Rain days a year (1 mm or more) | Sunshine a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (Met Office) | Heathrow station, London | 614.98 mm | 111.66 | 1,674.81 hours |
| Netherlands (KNMI) | De Bilt station, near Utrecht | 854.7 mm | 132.0 | 1,714.6 hours |
| Ireland (Met Éireann) | All of Ireland, national figure | About 1,288 mm | 146 to 228, depending on the place | 1,403.3 hours (average of twelve stations) |
Heathrow and De Bilt are single places. The Irish figures describe the whole country. So the table shows the range each service gives, not a clean race between three towns.
Summer and winter
| Country | June rain | June sunshine | December rain | December sunshine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (Heathrow) | 47.25 mm | 208.39 hours | 57.05 mm | 54.96 hours |
| Netherlands (De Bilt) | 70.5 mm | 207.1 hours | 83.8 mm | 55.5 hours |
| Ireland (national) | About 85 mm | 173.5 hours | About 142 mm | 44.8 hours |
For Ireland, Met Éireann calls December "the wettest month" and June "the driest of the summer months." Met Éireann also calls December the dullest month of the year for sunshine.
What stands out
In Heathrow and De Bilt, winter sunshine is nearly the same: about 55 hours in December. That is under two hours a day (my arithmetic: 55 hours across 31 days). June is close too, at about 207 to 208 hours.
The bigger gap is rain. De Bilt gets about 240 mm more rain a year than Heathrow (my arithmetic: 854.7 less 614.98). Ireland's national figure is higher again, and the Irish page says the number of wet days runs from 146 to 228 across the country. That is a wide range. It means the west and the east of Ireland could feel like two different climates.
Dublin Airport, the Irish station for comparison
Met Éireann's Dublin Airport 1991-2020 averages (read 11 October 2026) show a very different picture from the national figure. Rain is 772.5 mm a year, against about 1,288 mm for the whole country. The days with 0.1 mm or more number 137.1 a year, which is a lower threshold than the 1 mm used in the first table, so I do not set it beside the other rows. Monthly rain runs from 51.4 mm in March to 82.7 mm in November, with 64.0 mm in June and 72.1 mm in December. The table does not give sunshine hours. Mean temperature is 9.7 degrees C. By my arithmetic, Dublin Airport gets about 82 mm less rain than De Bilt (854.7 less 772.5) and about 158 mm more than Heathrow.
What is left open
- Daylight hours by town. Sunrise and sunset tables are not part of the weather services' averages used here, so none is given.
- Other towns in each country. A town on the coast, in the hills or in the north could differ from these four stations.
You could…
- Look up the station nearest the town you like on the weather service site.
- Compare rain days as well as millimetres. A few heavy days feel different from many light ones.
- Visit in December or January once, before you decide.
What would you give up first: some sun, or some rain?
Figures are estimates for planning, based on public data. Date read: 10 and 11 October 2026.
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