Sunday was another hot summer day in Northern Ireland, with temperatures again in the high 20s Celsius - although not reaching 30 C as it did on Saturday

The hottest place on Saturday, Magilligan in Co Londonderry, touched 30 degrees Celsius (recording exactly 30C, which is 86 Fahrenheit), a temperature level that is rarely seen in NI, only happening every few years.

It was hot again at Magilligan yesterday, but not quite as blistering – reaching 27.1C (81F), with Castlederg and Armagh equally warm, and Thomastown in Fermanagh just behind that, on 27C.

With practice rounds beginning for the Open championship on the north Antrim coast, the glorious weather yesterday was savoured by golf fans who headed to the Royal Portrush course. The Giant’s Causeway nearby had hit 29 Celsius the day before, Saturday.

And as the fine weather continued into Sunday, people flocked to beaches such as Helen’s Bay in Co Down, which was hot and sunny but not quite as high as the 27 C experienced there on Saturday July 12.

It was a sun-drenched weekend too, with non-stop rays in most places on both days. The sunniest place in NI on Saturday, Aldergrove, got 15.5 hours of sun at a time of year when total daylight is only a bit over 16 hours. Yesterday Aldergrove was again sunniest, but with a slightly reduced 14 hours of sun.

With thoughts turning not only to the major Open tournament, and also to the Scarva festivities today, it is expected to be cooler and less sunny, but still warmer than average for July, with temperatures expected to pass 20C in many places.

Despite the sweltering conditions on Saturday, tens of thousands of Orangemen and women and band participants walked for miles in parades at the height of the daytime heat, with surprisingly few reports of people unable to finish their march. We report in today’s News Letter about those various gatherings across Northern Ireland.

And as the video attached to this web article shows, we talked to marchers, many of whom – including the DUP MLA Phillip Brett – spoke with satisfaction that they had got through their full route.

“I have done 32,000 steps, and am still going,” Mr Brett said as his return march approached Belfast city centre from the field. “It is the biggest crowd I have seen on the Twelfth. It is the hottest too, but it hasn’t put off the crowd.”

For decades the hottest ever day recorded in Northern Ireland was only somewhat higher than that seen at Magilligan, of 30.8C on two days – one in 1976 and 1983. And one of those days, 1976, was a July 12. The hottest place then was Shaw’s Bridge, ironically close to the Field for the Belfast Twelfth march.

There was a very hot Twelfth in 2013 too, but with maximum NI temperatures that year just shy of 30C.

Saturday was, in summary, an exceptionally hot day for Northern Ireland – and in all locations too.

All but one of the main weather stations of the Met Office except recorded what is by its definition a “very hot” day for Northern Ireland of more than 25 degrees Celsius – 77 Fahrenheit. And even the one that didn’t, Murlough in Co Down, almost did, reaching 24.9C.

Here is the full list of the 16 weather stations, listed by hottest, that reached 25C or more:

• 30°C Celsius Magilligan, Co Londonderry

• 29.5°C Castlederg, Co Tyrone

• 29.4°C Aldergrove, Co Antrim

• 29.2°C City of Armagh, Co Armagh

• 29.2°C Derrylin, Co Fermanagh

• 29.1°C Giant’s Causeway, Antrim

• 28.5°C Thomastown, Fermanagh

• 28.4°C Portglenone, Antrim

• 27°C Helen's Bay, Down

• 26.6°C Altnahinch, Antrim

• 26.6°C Stormont Castle, Co Down

• 26.1°C Glennane, Armagh

• 25.6°C Katesbridge, Down

• 25.3°C, Killowen, Down

• 25.2°C Killylane, Antrim

• 25°C Ballypatrick Forest, Antrim

Magilligan on Saturday was in fact the first time anywhere in Northern Ireland has recorded 30 Celsius since July 18 2022. The hottest temperature ever in NI was reached the year before, 2021, of 31.3C.

NI is the only place in the British Isles never to have hit 90 Fahrenheit (32.2C): England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland have all done so.

Parts of England, particularly the south, are now reaching annual highs that are far in excess of Northern Ireland: somewhere reaches 30C every year now, and did so again yesterday, reaching more than 30C in England, Scotland and Wales, while on Saturday it reached 33.1C (92F) in the West Mindlands, at Ross on Wye. Wales hit the same, at Cardiff Bute Pk. Scotland was also over 30C on Saturday.

The hottest ever July 12 UK on record was more than a century ago, of 35C in 1923 in Clifton in Avon and at Reading University in Berkshire.

A spokesperson for the Met Office said there will be change today with “spells of rain and turning fresher from the west”.

l Morning View, page 16