Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE HEATWAVE is well and truly here, with temperatures set to range from 24 to 28 degrees across the country today and persist well into next week.
Temperatures may even reach into the 30s as the country basks in sunshine, but why is it going to be even hotter than the Azores this week?
Met Éireann meteorologist Joanna Donnelly has explained it’s actually due to a weather system coming up to Ireland from the Portuguese islands out in the mid-Atlantic.
She said on Twitter: “A big blocking anticyclone, moved up from the Azores so we call it the Azores high. So what’s going to happen is this anticyclone is going to allow the temperature to rise, day on day for the next week.
In an anticyclone, the air is descending from above, so that clears away any clouds. We know rising air gives us clouds, and rain, that’s what we’re used to with low pressure nearby. So this is the opposite of that. Clear skies, and the only thing rising is the temperature.
Donnelly said that this works by the sun heating the earth, and the earth heating the air, which explains why it gets cooler at night as “all that heat escapes”.
She explained: “But each day will get hotter as we start from a higher starting point each morning. There’ll only be light, variable winds, [with] practically no wind indland.”
A heatwave is defined in Ireland as five consecutive days with temperatures of over 25 degrees widely around the country.
“And for the next week, this is what we can expect here,” she said. “No rain, clear blue skies, rising temperatures.”
All that makes for a rather pleasant forecast for today, with Met Éireann forecasting an even hotter day tomorrow.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Can they call it a Red alert and give us a couple of days off work? Thanks :)
For the life of me, I will never understand why people hate the rain so much – or winter in general. Unless you’re a schoolkid this weather means sweltering in the office/business/public transport/traffic jam. Cant wait for November – which is still mild in these days of climate change.
@willow moon: 100% agree with you. This weather is great if you’re sitting by the pool sipping cocktails but if you have to work, it’s very uncomfortable. Bring on the autumn.
@Darren McCormack: moan complain whinge me me me.the two of ye are nearly as bad as the farmers.
@Darren McCormack: bah humbug
@Seriously stunned: Don’t think I was moaning. I enjoy this weather when I can sit by the pool and sip cocktails. When I have to work in a hot kitchen, I don’t like it so much. Simple. I haven’t heard any complaints from farmers to be honest.
@The Viking: Love you too x
@Darren McCormack: your working in the wrong kitchen buddy!!
@Daniel Finucane: I work from home Daniel. No top of the range aircon for me. Any jobs? Lol
@Darren McCormack: I’ve heard that the wheat isn’t growing. There is no grass, they’re going to have to start buying in feed. In turn, this will push prices up for … people who eat.
I don’t think anyone working in a hot kitchen could claim to be delighted about a heat wave! No one can argue with that!
O we’re going to pay for this
@Steve McMahon: did we not already “pay” for with the s#*ty winter we just had?
@Steve McMahon: sunshine tax?
@shellakybooky: let the bears pay the bear tax
@Steve McMahon: unfortunately you’re right Melanoma and skin cancer love Irish skin in this kind of weather and we just don’t seem to have the cop on to protect ourselves, judging by all the burnt skin I’ve seen in last week
@Steve McMahon: water shortages! and lots of em.
@Ro Molloy: Shaysuz. Would yiz not just enjoy it while we have it and quit your whining. What a nation.
I love this weather!
We had the longest winter I ever witnessed so this summer is a cracker so far and long may it continue boi!
Ireland really is the best country in the world when it’s sunny! And perfect to take your summer holidays in!
Why go through the stress of carefully packing a suitcase so you don’t get the extortionate airline charges, and the stress of airports to go to say Spain where it’s 40c!?
@Dotty Dunleary: agreed – great here when we have nice weather. But we usually don’t. And it’s never guaranteed. If I knew for a fact we’d have this all summer I wouldn’t go anywhere, but I’ve had too many summers with little sun or heat…
@EvieXVI: be careful what you wish for. Could you imagine what our ‘developers’ would do to Irelands coastline if we had guaranteed sunshine?
@Dotty Dunleary:
To get away from the extortionate prices of Hotels , food & drink that we have here in Ireland!!
Hotels dramatically increase prices whenever the kids are on holidays or there’s an event on like a concert or sporting event so I’d rather pay for a flight and head away for some gaureented weather
@Sean Fox: The weather is never guaranteed, sure look at Greece. Bad thunderstorms there when people would expect it to be as nice as the weather we’re getting.
@Mark McDermott:
I’d rather take a gamble with the weather than pay Irish hotel prices.
The average price of a hotel room in Dublin on a Saturday night is €200+ and that doesn’t include breakfast and the majority of these hotels are at best 3* charging 5* prices and the only way hotels will ever change is if people stop booking them , but that will never happen :(
Enjoy and stay SAFE.
@colm mc sweeney: Don’t worry, I always keep a durex in the wallet.
Not sure why everyone calls the perfectly normal weather a heatwave?
@psychiatrist: because if you read the article you might learn what actually constitutes a heatwaved
@psychiatrist: They love an aul weather alert in this Country.. If we paid to go to Spain and the weather was 25 degrees you’d think that was average.. Yet in Dublin we’re told how to survive in our cars, how to sleep at night, newspapers, radio stations, online sites are plastering us with stories on the heatwave and how to stay safe.. Its like we’re in an episode of Father Ted.. Temperatures are from the mid to high 20′s ffs.. That’s average summer weather for Europe..
@Travis: but not Ireland!!
I’m bringing a raincoat to work, just in case!
I do love this weather as well, but it’s so hard to enjoy when you’re stuck in work, dying to get home, and when you do eventually get home after 7 it’s not hot enough anymore to sunbathe. So you spend the week wishing your days away, praying for the weekend, and hoping that the weather will be still as good at the weekend. Maybe I should just ring in sick ☺️
Because it’s summer?
Why is it so cloudy today here in Cavan if there’s supposed to be an anticyclone keeping the skies blue?
@dorothy giselsson: clouds starting to lift in Virginia
@dorothy giselsson: Having lived in Ballyjamesduff for a number of years, I can safely say Cavan has its own micro-climate and nobody can predict the weather there.
Anticyclone today
Anticlimax Sunday
@Quentin Moriarty: sympathies to your wife.
All I can say is that I am glad to have air conditioning in the car I am driving. Would love to sleep in it if I could LOL looking like a zombie with the hayfever and the aircon is the only thing for it!!!
we will get the turf home dry this year .
Be glad that we have the weather that we have. If the weather was good the country would be overrun by foreigners.
Speaking as a Southerner from the US, I’m enjoying the sunshine and dry weather. Out of 14 summers I can count less than a handful that truly felt like summer. That said, it would be nice if air-conditioned homes were the norm here. I realize we don’t need AC in homes that much here in Ireland but in heat like this it would be wonderful to step into a cool house after running errands in the city or working in the garden. Americans who don’t have central air conditioning in their homes usually have window AC unit or two to keep the kitchen or bedroom cool. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any window units here, though.
Every so often and like a miracle, a day in Ireland gets warm enough to remind us of an exotic trip we once made or of one still pending. Get in there, bathe your feet and stop moaning. Winter is coming.
have your say