Sunny weather to continue with temperatures to reach 18 degrees

The weather is set to be dry and sunny for the next week in most places across the country following a brief break from fine conditions over the Easter bank holiday weekend.

Easter Sunday and Easter Monday were colder and wetter than normal after a fine spell of weather up to Holy Saturday. It was particularly cold on Monday night with many place experiencing freezing conditions.

The good news is that temperatures have started to rise and will continue to do so for the rest of the week.

The best of the weather will be on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with highs of 18 degrees in midlands areas. It will feel pleasantly warm everywhere, although temperatures in southern and eastern coastal areas will not be more than 15 degrees. Temperatures will drop to near freezing in the clear skies at night.

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Met Éireann forecaster Gerry Murphy said the cause of the good weather is an anti-cyclone area over much of western Europe which has brought very warm conditions to the south-east of England.

“It is going to dominate over the next few days. It is going to give pleasant weather for most of us,” he said.

"More active fronts will come in on Friday with rain pushing up from the south-east meaning that Leinster could get a good drop of rain through Friday. It will become more broken over the weekend."

This will be welcomed by farmers and gardeners, he says as it has been extremely dry in many parts of the country and particularly in the east.

So far this month only trace amounts of rainfall have fallen in most parts of the country. Dublin Airport (3.4 mms) and the Phoenix Park (3.3mms) were almost dry aside from a few brief showers which fell on Easter Sunday.

Mr Murphy said it has been dry in general across the country. "For most of the country there has been less than 40 per cent of rainfall. That's dry at a time when the soils are starting to heat up. A bit of rain will improve the growing conditions."

Statistics released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the United States reveal that March was the second warmest in world history since records began in 1880.

The year-to-date period of January to March ranks as the second warmest such period on record, behind 2016.

It is now expected that 2020 will certainly be among the five warmest years on record.