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The recent missing person search along the River Backwater has served to highlight the importance of voluntary search and rescue units and the key role they play in assisting the emergency services during operations of this kind.
Run on a voluntary basis, these units receive little or no statutory funding, relying almost exclusively on fundraising events, donations from the public and the money members spend from their own coffers to remain operational.
Like so many other voluntary organisations they have been hit hard by the Covid pandemic, with the cancellation of fundraising events meaning a key source of their income has dried up. As a result they are left with no option but to dig into their often meagre reserves and when they run dry members cover the costs of remaining operations from their own pockets.
The World Meteorlogical Organisation has recently published its Provisional Statement on the State of the Global Climate in 2020, noting that this year is on course to be one of the three warmest years on record worldwide.
Ireland s meteorological data for 2020 also provides further evidence of a warming Ireland, according to Met Éireann. 2020 is on course to be the joint ninth warmest year on record in Ireland and the 10th consecutive year with an above normal temperature.
Analysis has shown that February was the wettest February in over 50 years with 252% of normal rain falling.
Commenting on the data, Met Éireann Senior Climatologist Keith Lambkin said: As the WMO publishes its Provisional Statement of the State of the Global Climate 2020 , it s an opportunity to reflect on how 2020 compares to Ireland s normal climate. Extreme weather experienced in Ireland in 2020 is likely to become more common into the future.