Thursday to be hottest day of year before return to unsettled weather

Thursday may be the hottest day of the year to date, but temperatures will plummet after that and unsettled weather is in store for the beginning of next week when travel restrictions will be lifted.

Highs of 28 degrees in the south-east are likely to surpass the temperature of 27.1 degrees recorded on June 1st at Mount Brown, Co Roscommon, the highest temperature of the year to date.

The south-east and east will experience the warmest conditions on Wednesday and Thursday as a warm plume of air crosses the country. Temperatures will be so warm that there is a possibility of thunderstorms across the country on Thursday night.

Thereafter there will be marked change in the weather with temperatures falling by up to 10 degrees in the space of 24 hours as cool, showery conditions arrive from the Atlantic.

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Friday will see temperatures drop back to between 15 and 21 degrees and there will be heavy showers about. On Saturday and Sunday temperatures will drop even further with highs of just 16 degrees on Sunday.

The unsettled weather conditions will continue into next week at a time when all travel restrictions within the State will be lifted and primary school children are officially on holidays.

The extended outlook into the early days of next week is for continued unsettled conditions with rain or showers at times.

"The fine weather is really just a two day event. On Friday we are going to see further showers," said Met Éireann forecaster Liz Coleman.

“On Monday it looks like we have got another one of those fronts feeding into the south-west and there is no clear improvement after that.”