Record temperatures in Co Kerry as warm weather continues

This week’s warm weather hit record levels in the west of Ireland on Tuesday with temperatures reaching 17.2 degrees Celsius at the Valentia Observatory, the highest ever temperature recorded at the Co Kerry station for the month of February.

National temperatures failed to top Monday’s high of 17.3 degrees which was recorded in Mount Dillon, Co Roscommon.

The highest February temperature ever recorded in Ireland was 18.1 degrees on February 23rd, 1891 at what is now Casement Aerodrome outside Dublin. The second warmest February day ever recorded in Ireland was 18 degrees in 2012.

Meteorologist Vincent O’Shea said the recent warm weather had arrived in Ireland as a result of a southerly jet stream with wind flows coming from Portugal, the Azores, the Canary Islands and the sub tropics.

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He said daytime temperatures were 4-5 degrees above normal February highs of 9-12 degrees Celsius. "I'm not sure 12 degrees would even be the average high," he told The Irish Times. "Basically the temperatures are way above normal for this time of year."

In the UK, records were broken for a second time this week on Tuesday with temperatures reaching 20.8 degrees Celsius in the coastal town of Porthmadog in the area of Gwynedd in Wales.

The UK Met Office posted a map of the UK and Ireland with the message “for the second day running we’ve broken the UK record for the warmest winter day with 20.8 degrees Celsius at Porthmadog, Gwynedd”.

On Monday, temperatures reached 20.6 degrees Celsius at Trawsgoed in Wales. Scotland experienced its warmest February day on record last Thursday with 18.3 degrees in Aboyne, Scotland.

Back in Ireland, the warm, dry and sunny conditions are expected to continue throughout Wednesday with temperatures ranging between 13 and 17 degrees Celsius. However, temperatures will begin to fall on Thursday and Friday with cloud and rain beginning to spread. Rain and strong winds are expected over the weekend with southwest gales on Saturday and daytime temperatures falling back to the seasonal norm.