Enjoy the sun ... while it lasts

First, the good news — the sunshine is here to stay — for a few days at least.

And now for the bad news — the summer might just be as bad as last year.

As the country basked in sunshine yesterday, with temperatures touching 20C, the experts promised a few more good days to come.

Met Éireann said parts of Ireland, particularly Dublin and some inland areas, were as warm as Spain and Italy.

Yesterday also marked the official start of summertime and the weather more than made up for the loss of an extra hour in bed.

The summery weather is expected to continue this week, although temperatures will dip slightly.

Weather forecaster John Eagleton said the reason for the good weather was an anti-cyclone in the North Sea that is likely to stay put until the end of the week.

He warned, however, that the real summer might turn out to be just like last year’s — largely cold and wet.

“The weather in Ireland was also quite good this time last year but May was a horrible month weather-wise — it got cold and windy again,” he said.

Many made the most of the sunshine, heading to the beach. But only the youngest, bravest or most foolhardy dipped a toe in the sea.

Despite the unusually high temperatures in most parts of the country, some costal areas remained considerably cooler. It was also cooler in the southwest.

It was warmest inland and in the west and a cooler day in coastal areas of the east and south, due to the moderate south to southeast winds.

Met Éireann pointed out that the average temperature in March is usually just 10C.

Today will be another fair day with hazy sunshine. It will be warm again during the afternoon with temperatures between 15C and 19C, again warmest inland and in the west and cooler on the east coast.

Tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday will be dry with more hazy sunshine. Afternoon temperatures will reach highs in the mid to high teens generally, but will be cooler in some coastal areas.

Met Éireann predicts cooler weather from Friday but the weather is expected to remain dry, albeit colder.

* www.met.ie