Wednesday the hottest day of the year so far as temperature tops 30 degrees

A kite surfer in the sunshine off Claycastle beach in East Cork. File picture: Denis Minihane.

Wednesday was the hottest day of the year so far, Met Éireann has said.

A temperature of 30.8 degrees was recorded at Mount Dillon this afternoon.

It comes with Ireland in the middle of a heatwave with most counties seeing the mercury in the high 20s.

The hot conditions has seen the entire country placed under a high-temperature warning.

30.8°C at Mount Dillon and Newport at 30.0°C make today the warmest day of the year so far😎☀️👇https://t.co/MvCx72KIaT pic.twitter.com/Ewc63s69hs

— Met Éireann (@MetEireann) July 21, 2021

Cavan, Monaghan, south Leitrim, Roscommon, Longford and Westmeath are all under a status orange high-temperature warning until 9am on Friday.

Met Éireann said that temperatures are expected to “exceed 30 degrees” in places with overnight temperatures “dropping no lower than around 20 degrees”.

The rest of the country is under a status yellow warning, also until Friday.

“Daytime maximum temperatures generally 27 to 30 degrees Celsius with overnight values not falling below 17 to 20 degrees.” 

Meanwhile, a status yellow thunderstorm warning has been issued today for Donegal, Leitrim, Mayo and Sligo.

The forecaster warned that localised thunderstorms may bring “a risk of lightning and spot flooding”.

The warning is in place until 11pm this evening.

The high temperatures will last up to the weekend with Met Éireann stating that tonight will be “uncomfortably warm and humid”.

Met Éireann said that on Saturday it will be slightly cooler, according to the current indications.

The south and east may see “patchy outbreaks of rain” while Sunday will see temperatures hit around 25 degrees bringing “a mix of cloud and sunny spells”.

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland has broken the all-time temperature record for the region.

Northern Ireland has for the second time in 5 days provisionally broken it's all-time temperature record 📈

Castlederg in County Tyrone recorded a temperature of 31.3 °C at 1437 this afternoon 🌡️

This exceeds the 31.2 °C that Ballywatticock recorded last Saturday #heatwave pic.twitter.com/M4viWndTEi

— Met Office (@metoffice) July 21, 2021

 

It is the second time in five days the record has been broken.

The UK Met Office said Castlederg in Co Tyrone recorded a temperature of 31.3 degrees this afternoon.

It exceeds the 31.2degrees that Ballywatticock recorded last Saturday.

Before Saturday, the previous highest Northern Ireland temperature of 30.8C was recorded on July 12 1983 and June 30 1976.

A level amber heat wave warning is in place for all of the North until Friday.