LAST UPDATE | 17 Sep

IT’S AN UNUSUALLY bright day at the Ploughing Championships in Ratheniska, Co Laois compared to some previous years. 

In 2018 both the Tuesday and Wednesday of the event had to be called off due to extreme weather linked to Storm Ali. 

Tens of thousands of people arrived this morning for 93rd contest National Ploughing Championships, which got underway this morning with the traditional welly throw competition.

The National Brown Bread Baking contest, live sheep shearing and farm safety tutorials are just a few of the hundreds of events and activities that are also taking place throughout the day.

And with an election on the horizon, attendees can expect to see politicians from all parties out pressing the flesh ahead of the first day back in the Dáil tomorrow. 

Today’s warm and sunny weather has been welcomed by the crowds and one phrase has been repeated in small talk all over the festival: “We’ve got a great day for it.”

Speaking to The Journal, at Met Éireann’s stand in Laois, meteorologist Rebecca Cantwell explained that the dry conditions are as a result of weather patterns that, although later than expected, aren’t that abnormal.

Cantwell said: “We would usually experience this set up over summer, where we’d expect a few periods of high pressure. But it just hasn’t happened, until now.”

She added that the prolonged period of sunny weather is due to stick around until Thursday because high air pressure, which has built up over Ireland, has been “stalled” by weaker winds in the atmosphere.

While this high pressure is keeping cooler and wetter conditions away from Ireland, for now, Cantwell said the same scenario is stalling low air pressure elsewhere in Europe, resulting in devastating floods in many countries.