Weather promises to heat up into August

Finally the winter woolies can be put away as three weeks of warm, mainly dry, weather are coming to a beach near you.

Though Met Éireann would not speculate beyond five days of sunshine ahead, the Met office in London was offering higher than average temperatures in its 30-day outlook.

Mr Barry Gromett, Met office spokesman, said although Ireland would not see a repeat of the high temperatures recorded last August, it would be "rather more summery" than of late.

A heatwave in the Azores is causing pressure to build, he said, and pressure will continue to rise into the end of next week.

Ms Sarah O'Reilly of Met Éireann confirmed Ireland was "in for a lot of dry weather", although the north-west may have a few showers each day over the next week, she said.

Today, although there may be the odd shower, most areas will be dry with sunny periods and temperatures of 18 to 19 degrees. Tomorrow will be mostly dry with sunny spells, as will Sunday and Monday. A little drizzle is still possible near the north and north-west coast.

Next week will get warmer, said Ms O'Reilly, with daytime temperatures exceeding 20 degrees in many areas. She said it would be a little breezy in the next few days, though not next week, "which will make it feel warmer". The pollen count, she added, would be high.

There will be a moderate to fresh south-west breeze in the north and west and winds will be light and variable elsewhere.

Mr Gromett, stressing he was giving an outlook rather than a forecast, said the good, dry weather would continue to the end of next week and probably into the bank holiday weekend.

"The following week may see a bit of a reverse, with some rain, but temperatures will still register around 19 to 20 degrees." Moving beyond that he said it really was difficult to predict. There was a risk of an Atlantic depression moving in, which would bring temperatures down, but, he said, "it is unlikely there will be a return to the heavy rain and low temperatures we've been experiencing".