The past week may have erased it from our memory, but the first part of April saw some of the best weather on record for decades.

Both Shannon and Knock airports saw the longest spells of sunshine for that month since weather stations opened there in 1946 and 1996 respectively.

Belmullet, Co Mayo also reported its sunniest April on record with 240 hours. Nearly 14 hours of sunshine were observed at Dublin Airport on 21 April alone.

Cork Airport had its driest April since records began there in 1962, with just one fifth of the average rainfall for the month.

But heavy rain on some days on the Atlantic coast meant that April was wetter than usual in Newport, Co Mayo.

The sharp turn in weather observed in the past few days was illustrated by extreme temperatures: while it was 21.3°C in Newport on 23 April, grass temperature fell to a low of -8.3°C in Mullingar, Co Westmeath four days later. Indeed, Mullingar experienced ground frost nearly every day last month.