With tens of thousands of people heading to Bank Holiday weekend events, Met Éireann has forecast plenty of sunshine but rain showers also on the way.
A status yellow rain warning has been issued for six western counties – Clare, Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo and Sligo – between 1pm on Sunday and 1pm on Monday.
Saturday is due to be mainly dry with highest temperatures of 16 to 20 degrees. However, occasional showers are set to become more widespread.
Tens of thousands of people attending the Bray Air Display in Co Wicklow should be spared the worst of the rainfall as the east coast is expected to get the lightest rainfall.
Attractions include the Royal Jordanian Air Force and stunt-flying dentist Dr Eddie Goggins, with an anticipated crowd of 80,000 people watching from Killiney Hill to Bray Head and even Howth Head.
In Cork however there is a strong chance of showers if not rain on Bambie Thug as the singer headlines Cork Pride’s Party at the Port. The day will include music from J90 and DJ Ruth. Entry to the event is free, and it kicks off at 2pm.
The All Together Now Festival is also taking place at Curraghmore Estate, Waterford, where organisers will be hoping any rain showers are short-lived. The festival features The Prodigy, Jorja Smith, Róisín Murphy, Barry Can’t Swim and The Mary Wallopers.
In Galway the Ride The Classic Sportif cycling event is taking place on Saturday afternoon with The Galway Classic road race will taking place on Sunday.
With thousands of people on the move, gardaí have advised motorists to take extra care on the roads. Road checks have been set up to detect poor driving behaviours such as driving above the speed limit as part of the Garda’s August Bank Holiday road safety operation.
A motorist has been detected driving at 107km/h in a 60km/h zone on the on the N4 in Co Roscommon as part of the campaign.
The operation, which began on Thursday at 7am, had by Saturday afternoon seen a total of 440 drivers caught for speeding.
The offences included driving a car at 93km/h in a 50km/h zone in R510 Dock Road, Limerick; a car driving at 112km/hr in an 80km/hr zone on the R250 near Letterkenny, Co Donegal; and a car driving at 186km/h in a 100km/h zone on the N24 near, Piltown, Co Kilkenny.
By Saturday afternoon almost 125,317 vehicles had been checked for speeding.
The Garda road safety campaign continues until 7am on Tuesday.
Met Éireann said Sunday will probably feature more persistent rain developing in the west during the late morning and extending to Ulster and parts of north Leinster during the afternoon. Local flooding is possible.
The national outlook is for persistent and at times heavy rain to move east during bank holiday Monday with the clearance following from the west in the afternoon. Highest temperatures 18 to 22 degrees in moderate to fresh southerly winds, veering westerly and easing with the clearing rain.
Those giving up on the summer weather entirely, and jetting off somewhere warm for the weekend should be advised that three of Dublin Airport’s car parks are full. Spaces at the airports Express Red Long Term, Holiday Blue and short term at Terminal One are all sold out. Space is available at Terminal Two short term parking on Saturday, the airport operators said.
DAA’s Graeme Mulqueen said the airport is likely to see its busiest weekend ever as up to 120,000 people pass through each day. He said while the car parks were full most people would have booked their parking well in advance. Those who have not booked should consider public transport of get dropped off, he said. “It will be busy but no great difficulties”, he said.
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