Joint warmest June day ever for Northern Ireland - here are the hottest spots of the day
Today was the joint hottest June day ever recorded in Northern Ireland.
A reading of 30.8C exactly was obtained in Castlederg at 3.30pm, matching the Province’s all-time peak for the month, which had been reached on June 30, 1976 in Knockarevan in Fermanagh.
The outright all-time high for Northern Ireland is 31.3C, recorded in Castlederg on July 21, 2021.
The other top temperatures of the day today were:
Derrylin and Thomastown, both in Fermanagh, hit 29.5C at 2.31pm and 2.42pm respectively;
Aldergrove in Co Antrim hit 28.8C at 3.17pm;
And Killowen in Co Down hit 27.4C at 12.42pm.
It was the hottest day of the year so far in Northern Ireland, and the fourth day in a row that temperatures have reached 25C-plus.
An official ‘heatwave’ in NI is three days where the temperature has reached 25C or above.
Tuesday had been the previous hottest day of the year, when the Met Office recorded 28.1 C at Katesbridge, Co Down.
Things look set to be cooler tomorrow, though temperatures are expected to reach the high mid-20s; Katesbridge in Co Down for instance is forecast to see a high of 26C.
Temperatures look set to reach around 20C on Saturday, but rain, sometimes heavy, looks set to spread east during the afternoon.
Sunday and Monday look much cooler with sunny spells and showers and an occasionally fresh southwesterly breeze,” said the Met Office.
Meanwhile the UK in general saw a new monthly record set yesterday, with a top reading of 36.7C in Merryfield, Somerset.
The new high surpassed both the previous record set on Wednesday, when temperatures reached 36.1C in Gosport, Hampshire, and the long-standing record for June heat which dated back to the infamous summer of 1976.
The Met Office said in a post on social media that Wales has seen its hottest June day on record too, with 35.9C recorded in Cardiff.