Tropical air moving up across the country this weekend will push temperatures up to the mid-20s, Met Éireann has said. Friday began somewhat cloudy with outbreaks of rain and drizzle, but this will clear gradually northwards by the afternoon, allowing some hazy spells of sunshine to develop. The highest temperatures today will range between 16C and 19C.
On Saturday, conditions, particularly in the south and southeast, will be significantly drier and warmer as a band of tropical air swells up across the country. Temperatures may reach as high as 24C on Saturday, which would be close to Ireland’s all-time October temperature record of 25.2C, set at Clongowes College in Kildare on October 3, 1908. Saturday night will be mild and muggy, with temperatures falling back to between 11C and 14C.
Sunday will also be generally warm and dry, though with a good deal of cloud. There is the chance of an isolated shower in the northwest later in the day. Highest temperatures on Sunday will range from 19C to 23C degrees in light southwest winds. Sunday night will also be cloudy and mostly dry, though there will be a few showers over the northern half of the country. Conditions will be humid and mild with temperatures not falling below 13C to 16C.
Climatologist and Emeritus Professor at Maynooth University, John Sweeney, spoke this morning about the unusually warm October and the continuation of trends seen during a summer in which temperatures were broken across the world. He stated that these extreme weather events are part of a bigger trend of climate change happening globally. Prof Sweeney linked these events to the low levels of land and sea ice in the Antarctic and Northern Hemisphere, which are likely affecting the Jet Stream and causing these extreme events. He also mentioned the ongoing loading of the atmosphere with greenhouse gases as a contributing factor to the warming temperatures.
Meanwhile, earlier this week, the EU’s climate watchdog stated that the world may be on course for its warmest year on record. Last month was the warmest September on record globally, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service. Climate change and the El Nino weather event drove record September temperatures across the world and the extreme weather events seen in some countries. The world’s average surface air temperature last month was 16.38°C, almost 1C (0.93°C) above the 1991-2020 average for September, and 0.5°C above the temperature of the previous warmest-ever September, in 2020. 2023 is now on track to becoming the warmest year ever. Deputy Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, Samantha Burgess, stated that the unprecedented temperatures observed in September, following a record summer, have broken records by an extraordinary amount. She emphasized the need for urgent and ambitious climate action ahead of COP28, which is only two months away.
