Looks like we could be in for a few scorchers over the next 10 days.
A well-known and very reputable Irish weather forecaster has predicted temperatures of up to 25 degrees in what is expected to be a much welcome spell of fine weather next week.
Alan O'Reilly from Carlow Weather said that the weather may be a bit cooler today and tomorrow, particularly in the south of the country, but is set to improve into the weekend and across the coming week.
"It looks like next week the temperatures will steadily increase and we could be into well above 20 degrees by later next week. Maybe 23, 24 degrees, possibly even reaching 25 degrees later next week," O'Reilly told JOE.
"It's hard to go beyond 7-10 days, but we have the Azores high which looks to be heading our way, which there is general agreement on the weather models that it is going to become more settled and warmer next week.
"How long it will hold for does remain a little bit unclear at the moment. The 7-10 day period does look like it's going to warm up nicely."
O'Reilly added that the weather is also likely to remain warm with a very nice bank holiday on the cards for most parts of the country.
"It's going to be 17 to 18 degrees in some parts today, a bit cooler in the south. But, it's not going to be a bad bank holiday weekend. There might be some showers, especially on Saturday, but still getting up to 18 maybe even 19 degrees," he added.
"It's going to be a pleasant bank holiday and there will be some nice sunny spells at times. It won't be clear blue skies, but showers look like they will be mainly on Saturday, and then the odd one on Sunday or Monday. But, generally, I think a lot of areas will hold dry.
"It's next week really when we see temperatures start to ramp up, the middle of next week by Tuesday, Wednesday they will be increasing and we should be up to 22, 23 degrees hopefully by the middle of next week."
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The Azores is an area to the south west of Ireland off the west Coast of Portugal, which can impact Ireland by blocking out the weather from the Atlantic.
"We've had high pressure to the north of us a lot. Which is why we've had the much colder May, so that high pressure that was to the north has kind of drifted away," O'Reilly continued.
"When high pressure builds there, it can move up and what it does is it blocks out the Atlantic. So, we normally get our weather influence from the Atlantic and we get the bands of rain moving in from the west and southwest so the Azores high basically blocks all of that.
"It can also then help to draw up much warmer air from Spain and from Africa. Now, it depends on where the Azores high gets positioned so if it's kind of out to the west sometimes, it doesn't get quite as warm, but, if it comes up over it then we can see some really warm temperatures and some really settled dry weather."
The forecaster added that while it's unknown exactly how long the warm weather will last, it could remain in place for weeks.
"Sometimes it can last for quite a while, it doesn't always, but sometimes the Azores high can kind of stay there and block out the weather for weeks really," he said.
"Now, that's uncertain if that's going to happen this time, but it's much better to see an Azores high coming than to see low-pressure systems coming from the Atlantic."
Met Éireann has also said that any showers and spells of rain are set to end this week, with the driest spells over the eastern half of the country, gradually turning drier through the weekend.
As for next week, the forecaster says that current indications suggest that there will be a good deal of dry weather too earlier in the week amid some rain and showers, with temperatures expected to increase throughout the week, reaching the high teens or low 20s.
