THE SOUTHERN half of the country, below the imaginary line stretching from Dublin to Galway, is set to enjoy the warmest weather this week, according to forecasters.
Many parts of the country have already enjoyed a week of near unbroken sunshine. Yesterday was another warm day in many places, but there were huge contrasts between north and south.
Finner Camp in Co Donegal recorded a high of 24.1 degrees, but Cork Airport, where it was raining, had a miserable 13.1 degrees.
The west and the north received the best of the good weather over the last week.
The good news is that most of the country can look forward to a good deal of dry weather up to and including the bank holiday weekend.
Tomorrow will be cloudy across Ulster and parts of Leinster and there will be rain, but it will be brighter farther south and temperatures will be more than pleasant at 17-21 degrees.
The forecast is for the warm and mainly dry weather to return on Thursday and for it to stay that way across the country until the start of next week.
The temperatures, though, will not be as high as of late. There will still be highs of 21 degrees, and it will feel very pleasant and sunny.
A northerly breeze will keep temperatures on the cool side along northern coasts.
“There’s an imaginary line between Dublin and Galway and below that should have the warmest temperatures,” said Met Éireann forecaster Eoin Sherlock.
This will be good news for all the weather-dependent events taking place next weekend, most notably Bloom in the Phoenix Park, Forbidden Fruit festival in Kilmainham and Bavaria City Racing around the streets of Dublin on Sunday.
Ardfert in Co Kerry recorded a temperature of 28.3 degrees last Friday, the third-highest temperature ever recorded in Ireland in May. Shannon Airport recorded its highest May temperature of 27.8 degrees last Friday.
However, the full-month statistics for May are unlikely to show it as an exceptional month, given that the first fortnight was cold and windy.
Tomorrow, Met Éireann will make its long-term averages available for the period between 1981 and 2010. These should give some indication of the impact of climate change on the Irish weather.
