Met Eireann has issued a crushing heatwave update that could come as a double blow to Irish sun worshippers.
Not only does the national forecaster say the warm weather will come to an abrupt end on Tuesday - it also doesn’t predict any further hot spells for at least another four weeks.
A ‘high temperature warning’ is in place until Tuesday, with Met Eireann saying: “On Sunday and Monday exceptionally warm weather will occur over Ireland with daytime temperatures of 25C to 30C generally and possibly up to 32C in places on Monday. Night time temperatures will range from 15C to 20C.”
READ MORE: Rules on if you can demand a day off work during Ireland ‘heatwave’ as Met Eireann forecast 32C
While it’s due to remain warm on Tuesday, the ‘mini-heatwave’ is due to be broken by thunderstorms in parts before temperatures return to normal on Wednesday.
In its long-range forecast, Met Eireann says temperatures are due to remain “around normal” right up until Sunday, August 14.
Meanwhile, the force behind Ireland’s recent scorching temperatures has been unmasked as a freak ‘jet stream vortex’ that’s driving up the mercury.
A ‘strange set up’ has caused the jet stream to fragment off the coast of Portugal leaving a spinning whirlpool to stream air from North Africa into Ireland, a forecaster revealed.
It is currently surging towards Ireland as high pressure builds to blistering heat, Express reports.
Aidan McGivern, a meteorologist with the British Met Office, explained: “On Sunday, temperatures will start to increase and this is the first day that temperatures really start to ramp up.
“The reason for this is the jet stream, which has a fairly strange set up with a ‘cut off low’, high in the atmosphere, which we call a ‘vortex’.
“This has been circulating across the Portuguese coast and has helped to build and focus the heat across Spain and Portugal, and we have seen some remarkable temperatures, so high that even I don’t believe it.
“Through Sunday and through the start of the week this vortex will start to approach, and a plume of very hot air will cover the UK and Ireland on Monday and Tuesday.”
The vortex will join forces with a huge region of high pressure which will smother Ireland and force air towards the ground causing it to rapidly heat. It will trap boiling air under a dome of heat as it engulfs the country, pushing temperatures to rocket as high as 32C.
However, this unstable set up will collapse mid-week triggering a dramatic fall in temperatures.
Mr McGivern said: “High pressure is moving in widely across the UK and Ireland, leading temperatures to rise because of an effect called ‘subsidence’–sinking air getting hot as it compresses.
“The jet stream is allowing high pressure to build, which allows dry sunny conditions and also above-average temperatures. But we have also got this vortex which has helped to trap heat across the south of the UK.
“It is through Sunday, Monday and Tuesday that that heat will be pushed our way, but this is a very unstable set up, and there is a change on the way on Wednesday.”
Met Eireann has warned “heavy, thundery showers on Tuesday may lead to some spot flooding and hazardous driving conditions”.
It added: “Wednesday will see an end to the very warm conditions as temperatures return to more normal values of 16C to 20C. There will be a fair amount of cloud and some scattered showers. A few sunny breaks too and light to moderate northwest breezes.”
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