The highest temperature in Ireland in over a century has been recorded today.
Met Èireann says the record-setting temperature of 32.5 degrees Celcius was recorded in Dublin's Phoenix Park at 1 pm today.
The provisional figure is also the highest ever recorded in Ireland in the month of July and in Dublin at any time of the year.
Forecasters say the mini heatwave will end tonight, with temperatures dipping back down again this week.
Phoenix Park has now provisionally reached 32.5°C (12.3°C above its normal), which is Ireland’s joint 2nd highest on record, the highest temperature of the 21st Century so far and Dublin’s all time highest temperature. Previous Dublin record was 31.0°C in July 2006 at Casement. pic.twitter.com/E8hcUUrJ6K
— Irish Observational Climatology (@METclimate) July 18, 2022
A yellow weather warning will last until midnight but Leinster will remain under the alert until tomorrow evening.
Darren O'Connor, from Dublin Fire Brigade, says even with cooler conditions, the risk of wildfires remains extremely high:
"The vegetation out there at the moment is extremely dry because we're seeing humidity levels at 30%", he said.
"At the moment it's [humidity] extremely low and we've got daytime temperatures of 30 degrees. The vegetation is tinder dry and if it does ignite the fire will spread very rapidly."
