Temperatures fall just shy of NI's record high

Although some people were reporting temperature readings on their car dashboards of 32C and above, the official maximum temperature recorded by the Met Office was 30.5C - in both Derrylin and Thomastown, Co Fermanagh.

With the UK continuing to swelter in sizzling summer sun today, Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales all saw the mercury hit the 30C+ mark.

Indeed, Glasgow enjoyed its hottest day since records began, with temperatures in the city peaking at an incredible 31.9C.

While the Northern Ireland record high – set in June 1976 and again in July 1983 – wasn’t quite beaten this week, Armagh Observatory and Planetarium saw its readings peak at 30.4C – the highest temperature ever recorded at the facility since TMAX (maximum thermometer readings) measurements began in August 1843.

In fact, temperatures have been so high over the past couple of days that the heat has even impacted the Province’s road and rail infrastructure.

Tarmac on a number of roads and footpaths began to melt and Translink was forced to implement speed restrictions on the NI Railways network due to “very high rail temperatures”.

The public transport provider said it was “a precautionary measure in order to mitigate any potential risk of the rail expanding which could result in travel disruption.”

While temperatures are expected to fall slightly over the next few days, there could be more dry and sunny weather to come next month.

“It’s early days at the moment, but there are a lot of decent signals that there will be a lot of fine and generally settled weather,” explained Met Office forecaster Sophie Yeomans.

“On the whole it looks likely to be a fine and dry picture.”