Weekend washout forecast with ‘quite significant rainfall’ possible

A week of sunshine and occasional showers has been forecast, but conditions are to change dramatically, for the worse, ahead of the weekend.

A period of relatively settled weather will come as something of a relief, given how extremely wet July was and early August has been to date.

Temperatures this week are expected to be slightly above average for the time of year. Rain will be confined to a few showers in most places, particularly in western and southern coastal regions.

Thursday will be the best day of the week, with high temperatures of between 19 and 23 degrees nationwide, but a notable change is then anticipated.

Darragh Ó Sé: Changing grades hasn’t worked out - the GAA needs to go back to U-18 and U-21

---

Michael McDowell: Irish ‘sneaking regarders’ of Trump are naive about the threat he poses to democracy

---

Jacques Nienaber says Leinster got it wrong in three areas against Toulouse

---

Martin Wolf: Falling fertility rates are one of the biggest challenges facing our world

---

Friday will see rain spread across the country and the weekend looks to be something of a write-off. Saturday and Sunday will see heavy showers with the likelihood of heavy spells of rain on Sunday.

Met Éireann forecaster Emer Flood said there is a possibility of “quite significant rainfall” on Friday night into Saturday.

She said the issuing of a weather warning next weekend was a strong possibility. “The details are uncertain as it stands, but I would not rule out another warning,” she said.

Heading into next week, showery and breezy weather is forecast to continue with no sign of a settled period of warm weather as the summer draws to a close. The forecast for southern Europe shows that Greece retains a number of heat alerts, but other countries will have normal weather for the time of year.