The weather in Ireland will continue to sizzle with “lots and lots of sunshine” over the next week, one of the country’s leading meteorologists has predicted. 

Met Éireann has forecast that temperatures will peak at 25°C in some parts of the country today, with the hot weather showing no sign of disappearing. 

“It’s basically an area of high pressure to the north of us and low pressure to the west and east,” Carlow Weather’s Alan O’Reilly told Newstalk Breakfast. 

“So, if you were to draw a contour, it makes the omega symbol - which is why it’s called the omega block. 

“It’s really just a block in high pressure that’s bringing this beautiful, beautiful sunshine. 

“It’s going to stay that way for really another seven days most likely; it gets a little bit uncertain once we get into the middle of next week. 

“There is a small chance of a local shower kicking off Monday or Tuesday - but really, it’s just lots and lots of sunshine.” 

Swimmers at the Forty Foot. Photo: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

Irish weather

Mr O’Reilly added that this amount of sunshine is “unusual” for May.

“We’ve had more sunshine hours this year already, halfway through May than we had for the whole month of May last year,” he said. 

“And the unusual thing is last May was the warmest May on record - most people really scoffed at that. 

“But the reason was there was so much cloud around that the nights were very mild. 

“Last night, on a clear night, my weather station got down to 1.8°C. 

“So, the nights are still quite cool but, obviously, the days are then warming up.” 

People queuing for ice cream from an ice cream van on the beach at Portmarnock in Dublin, Ireland. Picture by: Alamy.com.

Despite this, Mr O’Reilly said there will be clear regional differences. 

“The other thing to note is because the area of high pressure is to the north of us, it’s drawn in an easterly wind,” he said.

“Which means there’s going to be 10 degrees of difference between the high temperatures of the east coast and the west coast today. 

“So, it’s going to get up to 25°C in the west but Dublin and some parts of the east might only be 15°C or 16°C.” 

Despite this, some parts of Munster experienced downpours yesterday. 

“Really they were very localised and there were probably farmers doing a dance in one field that wanted it and it was falling in another field because it was very localised,” Mr O’Reilly said.  

On the weather prospects for the rest of the summer, Mr O’Reilly said it is hard to predict. 

“Just because you get a fine spell in May doesn’t mean it’s going to rain for the whole of the summer,” he said. 

“We do know with the climate change modelling, we are going to see longer spells of drought but we are also going to see more extreme rainfall.” 

Main image: A beach in Lahinch, Co. Clare. Picture by: Alamy.com.