Weather and Climate

Irish countryside 

Ireland is know for its vibrant green rolling hills and rainy but mild seasons.  The atmosphere that facilitates any type of climate is a complex system with many variables.  The troposphere is closest layer to Earth's surface and is where weather patterns form the greater climate of an area.  Ireland's climate, according to Köeppen's system of classification, is CFB, meaning it has mild temperatures, typicaly wet and has warm summers.  To understand why Ireland has this great climate we must first understand the system that drives weather patterns.

Pressure is the force that drives weather and creates climates.  Air always moves from high pressure to low pressure and warm air has less atmospheric pressure than dense cold air. Areas near the equator receive the more sun than the poles making it naturally warmer there.  This difference in pressures and the atmospheres desire for equilibrium are what moves air creating weather and different climates.

The Equator gets more sun and is warmer than the Pole's 

If air could only move across earths surface, warm horizontal winds would simply blow north in the Northern hemosphere and south in the Southern hemisphere, but altitude, temperature  and earths rotation also act on airs movement.  Temperatures are much lower at higher atlitudes so cold air falls vertically and warm air rises. When warm high pressure air rises it cools and falls back to lower altitudes in a cycle know as a Hadley Cell.  Earth's rotation sets in motion the Coriolis Effect deflecting straight path north to south . Together Hadley Cells and the Coriolis Effect crate a circulation of hot air up and away from the equator that circulates around the earth  falling again at predictable latitudes.  

The pattern of spinning, rising, and falling of air from high to low pressure 

Ireland's latitude is 53°N, just within the prevailing westerlies winds below the cold polar easterlies. Most places at this latitude are much colder but because of Ireland's location in the Atlantic ocean it benefits from the warm North Atlantic Current.  Warm moist winds with high absolute humidity from the westerlies begin to cool, rise, and condense causing clouds and rain.  Its location, in line with the warm westward winds off the Atlantic and below the subpolar low causing rain, Ireland's beautiful green hillsides moderate climate.