Hot temperatures to continue into the weekend and could be even warmer next week

THE HOT TEMPERATURES being experienced this week could become more widespread and hotter still this weekend and going into next week.

Temperatures today are expected to climb as high as 28 degrees but could reach the low 30s on Friday.

Met Éireann has issued a weather advisory on the back of the current spell of warm weather, which is in place until Tuesday, 14 July.

The weather advisory notes that the hot weather will continue into next week, with heat wave conditions expected.

There will also be warm and humid nights, with a minimum of 15 degrees or higher and it’s possible that tropical nights, when the temperature does not drop below 20 degrees, may occur in places this weekend.

The warmest conditions in the next few days will be in the south and east, where temperatures are expected to reach between 20 and 25 degrees.

It will remain cooler in the west and northwest under cloudier skies, with highs of between 16 and 19 degrees.

However, the high temperatures are expected to become more widespread over the weekend and into next week, and temperatures could reach the low 30s in some areas from Friday.

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Met Éireann meteorologist Andrew Doran Sherlock told The Journal that there is currently high pressure to the south, resulting in a “warm, humid, tropical maritime air mass being fed up from the southwest”.

“We got up to 26.7 degrees on Sunday,” said Doran Sherlock, “so it’s quite warm, but it’s not the same air mass that’s over the continent at the moment.”

Temperatures are on the rise again across Portugal, Spain, France and Greece and are forecast to reach 40 degrees in parts of a region still suffering the aftermath of a recent record-breaking heatwave.

However, Doran Sherlock said the high pressure currently over parts of Southern Europe is going to “very slowly move northwards over the coming days”.

“By later Thursday into Friday, it’s going to be centred more to the north of us,” said Doran Sherlock.

“From Friday onwards, we’ll be getting more of an easterly air flow and that’s going to be feeding in the warmer continental air mass over the country.

“Over the coming days, the temperatures are increasing, but it’s not really until Friday before we’re getting into the continental air mass, and that stage we are expecting temperatures to widely get into the mid to high 20s, or possibly higher locally.”

He added that there is a “trailing weather front to the north”, with “quite a lot of cloud building in through the night and the best of the sunshine is in southeast”.

A weather front is the boundary separating two air masses of contrasting properties, such as temperatures or moisture.

As these masses collide, the less dense warm air is forced to rise over the heavier cold air, causing condensation and generating widespread clouds, precipitation, and unsettled weather.

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But by Friday, Doran Sherlock said these weather fronts “will be well away from us”.

This means there won’t be the same amount of cloud and there will be daytime heating throughout the day.

“And the source of the air then will be coming from the continent, which obviously is quite warm at the moment.”

While Doran Sherlock noted that there is greater uncertainty the further out the forecast is, he said that through the weekend, “we will be expecting temperatures reaching the high 20s, or even higher than that locally into early next week”.

“Then it’s just a case of how long that will stick around,” he added.

“There might be more cloud being fed up, which might reduce temperatures a little, there is that bit of uncertainty as we go later into next week.”

It is likely there will be heatwaves this week, and a greater likelihood of heatwaves in more areas as we head into next week.

“The warmest temperatures are generally in the south and east for the coming days,” said Doran Sherlock, “and these temperatures will become more widespread throughout the weekend and into next week.”

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