NI swelters on hottest day of year ... but heavy rain due soon

Temperatures soared to almost 26 degrees on Sunday as Northern Ireland enjoyed its share of the scorching sunshine beaming down on the UK over the weekend.
By The Newsroom
Published 18th Jun 2017, 19:25 BST
Updated 19th Jun 2017, 12:48 BST
Sunbathers shelter under beach umbrellas on the seafront in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, on Sunday as Britain basked in the hottest day of the year so farSunbathers shelter under beach umbrellas on the seafront in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, on Sunday as Britain basked in the hottest day of the year so far
Sunbathers shelter under beach umbrellas on the seafront in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, on Sunday as Britain basked in the hottest day of the year so far

Peter Slosh, a duty forecaster with the Met Office, told the News Letter the warm weather is set to continue on Monday and Tuesday but temperatures are unlikely to climb quite as high as during the glorious weekend sunshine.

Mr Slosh said: “Helen’s Bay was the warmest spot in Northern Ireland on Saturday with a temperature of 25.1 celsius. That was recorded just after four o’clock. In Antrim there were 24s, along the Giant’s Causeway and those sorts of places. The highest temperatures were all in the east.

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“In Helen’s Bay again today (Sunday), the temperature was up at 25.6 celsius at around one o’clock, which was quite a bit higher than elsewhere in Northern Ireland.”

Mr Slosh said the sunshine wasn’t evenly spread out across Northern Ireland.

“There is a real contrast in conditions because there was a bit of cloud around in the west of the country, but even below that it was still quite muggy and warm,” he said.

“As we go into the next few days we’ve still got that cloud trying to come in from the west and down from the north.

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“The boundary of the cooler air will still be to the north west of Scotland. I think we will have a similar split tomorrow (Monday) between east and west in Northern Ireland between sunshine and cloud.”

The Met Office forecaster added: “It will be a dry day, just about everywhere in Northern Ireland and the high temperatures will probably be in the same sort of south-east corner. I think we will see sort of 20-22 celsius in areas like Newry but more like 18 celsius in the west.”

He added: “Tuesday will still be quite bright, with still some sunshine, still approaching 20 celsius and more evenly shared out on Tuesday. We will then get a hiccup on Wednesday with heavy showers breaking out and there could be some thunderstorms as well.”

Elsewhere in the UK, the hottest day of the year was recorded on Sunday. The mercury peaked at 31.9C (89.4F) at Hampton Water Works in Greater London, while scorching weather was also enjoyed by the majority of Britons.

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The temperature topped the 30.2C (86.4F) recorded in Teddington on Saturday, and the hot weather is set to continue into this week.

A Met Office spokeswoman said temperatures could rise to 33C on Monday.

Public Health England has issued a heat health warning.

Related topics:Northern IrelandMet OfficeAntrimScotland