Summer to start with a shock: Thundery showers and 'large hail' forecast for Monday
Summer is to “start with a bang”, the Met Office has said, as Monday brings thundery showers and hail to Northern Ireland.
Forecasters are still keeping an eye on the weather front, but a spokesman told the News Letter that afternoon is predicted to bring some “pretty active” conditions to christen June 1 – the first day of meteorological summer.
That follows poor weather over the weekend, as anyone hoping the dry heat of the last few days would hold for a Saturday at the seaside is likely to be disappointed.
Today, many in Northern Ireland hit the streets, hoping to get some of what could be the last of the truly blazing sun before clouds move in.
Although early morning was definitely a cooler start than much of the week, as the day went on temperatures rose once more to top out at 23.5C in Magilligan Point in Co Londonderry. That’s more than 1C less than yesterday’s maximum, showing the mercury is slowly coming down from its high over the Bank Holiday.
In the capital city, sun-worshippers were glad to be finally be able to soak up some rays in the grounds of their regular heatwave haunt, Belfast city hall.
Warm weather usually sees office and shop workers in the city centre head to lawns in front of the Edwardian civic building on their lunch breaks. For most of this week, that wasn’t possible as the grounds were closed to dismantle an international market held there over the bank holiday weekend; today, they were finally open again and saw an influx of city centre workers.
Forecasts said Friday would be cloudy first thing, though should brighten up in the afternoon with maximum temperatures of 21C. That’s still above average for this time of year, but substantially below the 26.3C peak found in Armagh city at the start of this week.
That put Northern Ireland on a par with Barcelona and Istanbul, though didn’t break a record for the province’s hottest day in May that was set all the way back in 1922.
Saturday is where the weather really turns, a Met Office spokesman said, as the day is to begin with heavy rain first thing. Although that will move off, he added, it’ll be followed by heavy showers that have the potential to turn into “thundery outbursts” in the evening.
Forecasters currently don’t think they’ll have to issue any weather warnings for Saturday, but haven’t yet ruled out the possibility.
Temperatures are to be around 17C to 18C mark, largely standard for Northern Ireland at this time of year.
Sunday is going to be about the same temperature, the spokesman said, and though the rain will easy off there will still be intermittent showers that mean anyone heading out would be wise to keep an umbrella handy.
The heat continues to fade around the UK, though Northern Ireland never hit the extreme heights seen in parts of England.
After breaking May temperature records on two consecutive days in the early part of the week, the south of England is gradually cooling off – though there was another heatwave tragedy as a 14-year-boy became the eleventh person to die in open water.