Met Éireann has issued a high temperature advisory for the end of this week and into next week during which Ireland is set to be “uncomfortably warm”.
Temperatures are forecast to widely reach the high 20s and possibly exceed 30 degrees in some areas on Sunday and early next week.
Conditions are to remain “uncomfortably warm” at night, staying above 20 degrees in some cases, it said, as Ireland feels the effects of an ongoing European heatwave, which has seen temperatures exceed 40 degrees in some countries.
Monday was Ireland’s hottest day of the year so far, with a high of 27.7 degrees recorded in Dublin’s Phoenix Park.
The Portuguese government has declared an eight-day state of alert due to a high risk of wildfires, while the UK Met Office has warned that the heat there could pose a risk to life.
Met Éireann meteorologist Paul Downes said the “sweltering heat forecast” from July 15th to 19th was due to factors combining to transport “the airmass that has brought exceptional temperatures to Europe, towards Ireland”.
He said temperatures would likely rise markedly on Sunday to the mid to upper 20s and could possibly surpass 30 degrees in some places on Monday.
Mr Downes said the outlook beyond this was more uncertain but Tuesday would be “another hot day and perhaps as hot if not hotter than Monday”. He said the high temperatures would likely abate from Wednesday on.
He said that while extremely hot weather does occur within natural climate variability “the kinds of temperature extremes we are seeing in Europe are directly influenced by climate change”.
“June 2022 was Europe’s 2nd warmest on record, and the USA’s warmest. The eight hottest Junes on record globally all occurred in the last eight years.”
The highest recorded temperature for Ireland was 33.3 degrees at Kilkenny Castle in June 1887. The highest in the last 20 years was 32.3 degrees recorded at Elphin in Co Roscommon on July 19th, 2006.
Keith Lambkin, head of Met Éireann’s Climate Services Division said that due to climate change “we are expecting to see heatwaves become longer, more frequent and intense than in the past. This increase in heat, increases the odds of temperature records being broken.”
