Overnight rain will not dampen sunny outlook
A band of rain on Thursday night will be followed by sunshine again on Friday as the current settled spell looks set to continue until mid-April.
Temperatures will rise on Thursday to 19 or 20°C away from the south and east coasts, where it will be a few degrees cooler.
It is possible that the current annual high of 19°C, set at Mount Dillon in Roscommon on March 31st, will be challenged.
All areas will enjoy long periods of sunshine during Thursday.
Cloud will build from the south Thursday evening ahead of a band of rain that will affect Munster, south Connacht, and the southern half of Leinster into Friday morning.
The rain will be a patchy affair with low precipitation totals, ranging from 1-3 mm in most places and 3-5 mm on higher ground in Kerry and Cork.
Sunshine will return to all areas following a cloudy start to Friday.
High pressure will keep Ireland’s weather dry and warm, especially away from south- and east-facing coastal counties, through the weekend and next week.
There are signals that high pressure may weaken in 10 to 12 days’ time, allowing Atlantic systems to encroach from the west and south.
By then, however, Ireland will have experienced four weeks of exceptionally dry conditions.
Drying conditions will be good to excellent, but grass growth will slow down within a week due to growing soil moisture deficits.
Met Éireann’s preliminary data for the month shows that, for only the second time, all 25 of its synoptic stations were below the 1991-2020 long-term average (LTA) for rainfall during any month. The last time this occurred was in July 2024.
Dunsany, County Meath, had its driest March since 1964, when the station was established.
The Met Éireann station at Mace Head in County Galway also recorded its driest March since it was established in 2005.
It was also remarkably dry in Ballyhaise in Cavan (driest March since 1953), Gurteen in Tipperary (1961), and Dublin Airport (1990).
March was also sunnier than the seasonal average.
