Ben Lowry: ​A strange spring day expected of stormy weather, but some sunshine too

(Click here to read Ben Lowry’s main column on the cost of an all Ireland)

Where I was in Co Down it was a mild, often sunny afternoon with no sense of an impending storm.

The forecast for today is a strange one, of wild winds in parts of the UK including perhaps Northern Ireland, Scotland and the west coast of England, but also of some of the warmest weather in Britain so far this year in places, more than 20 degrees Celsius.

The Met Office explains this as hot weather coming up from mainland Europe at the same time as the storm.

The forecast for Belfast doesn’t look that bad for later in the day, with some sunshine and mild temperatures, although that will feel colder in the wind.

Earlier this year I wrote about the many sunny days that we enjoyed in January and February, and the sense of an emerging spring. Then we were plunged into an actual spring, from early March, that ended up far wetter than average.

Even so, I continue to think of March and April as a fabulous time of year when daylight returns to a dramatic extent. Last Saturday in Belfast it was bright and sunny at 6pm, well before sunset, and before even the hour changed to make the evenings brighter still.