Northern Ireland weather: Armagh Observatory reports fourth warmest summer in almost 230 years

Last week’s heatwave broke the UK record for the most consecutive days - seven - with temperatures above 30C in September.

Now Armagh Observatory - which has been taking weather records since 1795 – has reported that summer in the city was also much warmer than usual.

"This was the warmest summer at Armagh for 17 years, that is, since summer 2006 (16.23C), and the fourth warmest summer at Armagh on record," said the observatory in a statement.

Taking the three months of June, July and August together, the meteorological summer was also much warmer than average, and both wetter and sunnier than average.

The mean temperature for the three months of 16.2C was 1.88C warmer than the 225-year long-term average summer temperature at Armagh.

The six warmest summers at Armagh from the hottest to coolest are now 16.5C in 1995, 16.3C in 2006, 16.23C in 1983, 16.2C in 2023, 16.19C in 2021 and 16.17C in 2018.

The total of 493.0 hours of strong summer sunshine was approximately 15% more than the 140-year long-term average.

The mean temperature for August of approximately 15.9C, was 1.3C warmer than the 225-year long-term average temperature for the month at Armagh. The warmest day reached 24C on 9 August.

The wettest day of ythe month was the 18 August with 36.0 mm of rainfall associated with the arrival of Storm Betty.

This week's forecast for Northern Ireland is set to be more typical September weather than last week.

Monday night into Tuesday was forecast to include a mainly dry night with clear periods, just the odd light shower towards the North Coast but a much colder night than of late with temperatures dipping as low as 4C.

Tuesday will be a cooler, fresher feeling day with light winds and a maximum temperature of 17C.

Wednesday will start bright with a wet and windy afternoon while Thursday and Friday are expected to be mostly dry with some sunshine and lighter winds.