Met Éireann records hottest day with change ahead for weekend

Tuesday was the warmest day of the year so far according to Met Éireann, with highs of almost 19 degrees recorded in some places.

Midland counties saw the best of the sunshine with the Oak Park meteorological station in Carlow registering 18.9 degrees, followed by 18.7 in Gorteen in Tipperary and 18.5 in Mount Dillon, Co Roscommon.

Beach-goers enjoyed pleasant conditions over recent days but have been denied the warmest temperatures due to onshore breezes, a situation which will remain much the same over today and tomorrow according to forecaster Gerry Murphy.

“Today is another warm day, so we still expect temperatures to get up over 18 degrees in places.

“They will range from 13 to 18, but they’ll be coolest along the south and east coast because there’s a breeze pushing on there. When you go inland it’s rising fairly noticeably with highest temperatures in parts of the midlands,” he said.

Average temperatures for the month of April have hovered around 11 or 12 degrees, meaning areas which have been bathed in the best of the sunshine have bucked the general trend by up to 5 or 6 degrees.

A fairly drastic change is expected over the course of Friday and Saturday, however, as cooler air and rain sweeps in from the west, causing temperatures to tumble from the highs of recent days.

“On Friday there is a change, it does look as if it will be a cloudier day.There will be some showers in the east during the day, and it will be a cooler, breezier day with outbreaks of rain pushing into the west later on.

“It doesn’t give that much rain but it does introduce much cooler air which means that the maximum temperatures for Saturday are between 8 and 12, which is not that cold but is a significant drop of 7 degrees in some places,” he said.

Showers will extend over Saturday night and into Sunday, but despite the ominous weekend forecast it is expected to be a reasonably dry start to next week.