Look at this satellite image of blistering sunshine over every part of Britain and Ireland - not a cloud in sight!
The graphic on this webpage below based on satellite imagery gives a snapshot of the stunning weather that Northern Ireland and beyond is enjoying this week.
The picture was taken at 1.35pm today (Wednesday April 2), a few minutes after the exact mid point in the day (between Belfast’s current sunrise time of 6.50am and sunset of 8.03pm). There is not a cloud across any part of the British Isles, which is highly unusual.
Normally, even on very sunny days, there is a least a wisp of clouds in a few locations, as you can see in the image lightly covering small parts of Belgium and north east France, just across the English Channel (if you look down in the bottom right hand corner of the image).
The glorious weather everywhere on Wednesday saw almost average summer temperatures, of just shy of 20 degrees Celsius in Altnaharra, Scotland, the warmest place in the UK. The highest maximum temperature in Northern Ireland was Castlederg, reaching 16.1 °C (Tuesday had been warmer, reaching 16.9 °C at Derrylin Cornahoule in Fermanagh.
The sunniest place in NI on April 1 was Thomastown, Fermanagh, at 9.9 hours, which was also the sunniest place today (Wednesday), with 12.2 hours. This was not far behind the sunniest place in the UK, Kinloss in Scotland with 12.7 hours. Most places get just more than 13 hours of daylight now, and almost all main Met Office weather stations recorded 12 or more hours of sunshine, meaning that it was sunny 95% of the time pretty much everywhere in the UK. The Republic of Ireland also basked in largely uninterrupted sunshine.
The fine weather is expected to continue perhaps into next week, although moments as entirely cloudless as shown in the graphic in this article will be rare. (Picture taken from www.sat24.com)
In contrast, much of southern Europe has recently been battered by intermittent and at times heavy rain, with flooding in parts of Spain, Italy and Greece.
Meanwhile, sunny conditions helped solar power in the UK generate a new record high of more than 12.5 gigawatts of electricity on Tuesday, the system operator has said.
The record 12.569GW of power from solar – equivalent to around four new nuclear power plants – was generated between 12:30 and 1pm on Tuesday.
And with the sunny conditions continuing, there is potential for the new record to be broken again later this week.
A spokesperson for the National Energy System Operator (Neso) said it was “great to see solar being able to play an ever increasing role in our energy mix”.
The spokesperson said: “Over the last six years we’ve been working to reconfigure the network to enable more and more clean power sources to operate as the use of coal has been phased out.
“Today’s new solar record is testament to the work our teams have been leading to deliver our 2025 ambition for zero carbon operation.”
Responding to the new record, Jess Ralston, analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) think tank said increased solar power generation made Britain less reliant on gas, the cost of which soared following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Every new solar panel installed in the UK makes us less dependent on gas imports, which is good for our energy independence as well as for stabilising energy bills given the sun offers up its power for free.
“As we install more solar and build more wind turbines, our reliance on gas will fall, as will our vulnerability to the likes of Putin. Volatile gas prices cost us an extra £140 billion since the crisis began so there are benefits for tax payers and bill payers alike,” she said.