THE heatwave that made Ireland hotter than the Bahamas is coming to an end, but warm weather with occasional sunny spells will prevail.

The longest-running spate of hot weather since 1995 saw the mercury soar to close to 30C over six consecutive days last week.

But it comes to an end as clouds move in across most of the country, bringing down temperatures, although they will still be in the 20s.

Met Eireann weather station at Shannon Airport was hotter than Freeport in the Bahamas at 29.3C on Saturday, but such unusual highs are unlikely to happen again in the foreseeable future.

“The heatwave is officially over,” said Met Eireann forecaster David Rogers.

However, it’s not necessarily bad news, he added.

While sun-lovers can say goodbye to days of wall-to-wall sunshine and sizzling temperatures for now, it will still remain moderately warm - in the high teens to low to mid-20s - for the coming week.

It will still remain relatively mild at night with temperatures in mid-teens, he added.

As the high pressure system that had kept Ireland basking in sunshine for the past two weeks is being nudged out by a lowering of pressure over the Atlantic, clouds will move in, lowering overall temperatures across the country.

“It won’t be completely cloudy and there will be some warmer temperatures during sunny breaks, but it won’t be anywhere near what it has been,” he added.

Thunderstorms and isolated scattered showers were also expected to roll into the west by last night and spread to the northwest by today.

Moist humid air is also expected to bring more thunderstorms and scattered showers by midweek, but when and where they will hit is unclear, he added.

“It’s impossible to say where or when or if it will happen,” he added.

“But there will be a lot more variability with cloudy conditions and sporadic showers,” he said.

Although there is no widespread rain forecast, showers will bring an end to the official drought that was ongoing here for almost three weeks without rain.

Online Editors