This glorious Indian summer we are having will turn to an early winter within the next week, according to Met Éireann.
Just as one of the best Septembers on record ends, October will begin with normal service resuming for the Irish weather.
A cold front will go through tonight introducing fresher weather. Temperatures will gradually fall over the coming days. Atlantic weather takes over for from Thursday into the weekend.
Showers are forecast for the weekend, with temperatures falling back to the low to mid-teens, below average for the time of year.
Temperatures will fall over the weekend with night-time values close to freezing on Sunday and Monday night. There is a chance of ground frost during the early stages of next week.
The southerly airflow we have had for September is being replaced by a more traditional Atlantic west to north-westerly pattern.
Temperatures have been several degrees above average across the country for the whole of the month.
Yesterday a high of 20.4 degrees was recorded at Gurteen Agricultural College in Co Tipperary, nearly 6 degrees above normal for the time of year.
Soil temperatures, which are the best medium-term arbiter of temperatures, are an average of 3 degrees higher than normal for the time of year.
Met Éireann forecaster Deirdre Lowe said the extraordinarily mild weather has been caused by warm winds from the Azores and continental Europe, combined with high pressure which has kept rainfall away.
“It is late to have such good temperatures. The colder, more seasonal air is going to be a jolt when temperatures go back to 10 to 11 degrees,” she said.
Preliminary data from Met Éireann for September show an average temperature of 15.6 degrees at Valentia Observatory in Co Kerry, 1.5 degrees above normal. Rainfall is just a sixth of the average for the month.
Temperatures at Cork Airport are also 1.5 degrees higher than normal and rainfall has been similarly scant.
The Phoenix Park has recorded an average temperature of 14 degrees for the month, 0.6 degrees higher than normal.
Just 15.2mms of rain has fallen to date in the month in Dublin and almost all of that was on one day, September 19th.
