It is a dry and warm start to the week, with good spells of sunshine in most places, with top temperatures of 19°C to 23°C on Monday. There will be moderate southeasterly winds, fresh at times, along the southwest and west coasts. It will be humid and close overnight, with some clear spells, but some patches of mist in eastern areas.

Tuesday will be warm again, but with more hazy sunshine as clouds build from the Atlantic. There will be dry weather in most places, but some heavy showers will break out with a risk of thunder and top afternoon temperatures of 19°C to 25°C. Showery rain will mainly be in western and southwestern counties with the risk of some thundery outbreaks in places there.

The warm weather will continue into midweek, with some warm sunny breaks possible in places. It will be rather cloudy on Wednesday with showery rain turning thundery in places. Afternoon highs will range from 17°C to 21°C, depending on sunny breaks.

It will be cooler on Thursday, with some further rain and some thundery outbreaks possible. Afternoon temperatures will range from 16°C to 20°C.

Friday is forecast to be very unsettled and very cool and breezy. There will be some periods of rain or showers, but some drier bright periods are likely at times also.

Farming weather

Rain

It was very dry across the far south of the country last week with less than 10% of rainfall, but the far northwest had up to 100% due to the slow movement of a frontal passage during midweek. The rainfall concentration this coming week will be split.

Temperatures

It was slightly cooler last week by about half a degree or so. Warm air over Ireland during the early part of this week will push temperatures well into the 20s. After midweek, they will revert to normal or slightly below. Mean values for the seven-day period will work out positive by just over a degree.

Sunshine

Munster was sunny last week but the rest of the country was rather dull.

Drying conditions

Drying will be good up until midweek.

Spraying

Conditions will be generally good for spraying today and early next week.

Field conditions

The land is in pretty good shape now and the harvest is in full swing.