NI weather: Temperatures hit 26 °C today but we are to be hit with thunderstorms, lightening, 'large hail' and weather warnings

Later there is a chance of a few showers across the west, but otherwise a dry night with variable amounts of cloud and clear periods, say the Met Office. They add that winds will be ‘light and variable’.

Grahame Madge, a Met Office spokesman, said that we are “in for a transition now, increasingly from tomorrow evening onwards”.

He added: “We are expecting to see increasing humidity and an area of low pressure.

"It won’t raise temperatures too much but the main focus will be the moist air which will bring quite serious convection which means heavy rain and thunderstorms”.

Mr Madge added that the ‘west of Northern Ireland and the Irish republic’ would be most affected.

He said temperatures across Northern Ireland would be 22°C on Friday and the same temperature on Saturday.

"The humidity keeps the temperatures up at night which makes difficult sleeping conditions and brings large hail,” he added.

"It will start to deteriorate on Friday but Saturday will start to see the focus for some of those thunderstorms,” he added.

“It is the sort of thing we are looking at weather warnings for – but the trouble is we only get clarity several hours before”.