Temperatures to hit 26 degrees as warm spell looks set to continue

August began in a deluge and will end with a long spell of warm and dry weather stretching into next month.

The soggy weather and thunderstorms have now been replaced with a welcome stretch of fine weather in what is the last week of the summer holidays for most schoolchildren.

A high of 25.1 degrees, recorded at Mount Dillon, Co Roscommon, on Wednesday is likely to be surpassed on Thursday, when temperatures of 26 degrees are expected in the south midlands. It will be hot in the midlands area in general on Thursday and slightly cooler around the coast because of onshore breezes.

The weather will stay settled into the weekend and the early days of next week, according to Met Éireann forecaster Paul Downes.

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“It looks like it is going to extend into the middle of next week. After that it is a bit up in the air,” he said.

“It looks like high pressure is going to stay around for a while. We are not looking at any large-scale rainfall over the next five to seven days.”

It is great news for farmers, who were hoping for dry weather in order to continue the harvest, after heavy rain destroyed a lot of crops earlier in the month.

Temperatures will be slightly cooler over the weekend, but still very pleasant, with highs of 23 degrees.

The early days of next week could see even warmer temperatures, but it will cool down at night, with patches of mist and fog.