Part of the country, mainly the west and southwest, saw between 200% and 400% of the average weekly rainfall last week. The Shannon weather station recorded 40mm of rain on Friday alone.

Met Éireann is forecasting a return to dry and settled conditions early in the week before more rain spreads later in the week.

Monday will be a dry and warm day with plenty of sunshine but there is a very slight risk of some patchy rain in places. Top temperatures will range from 20°C to 24°C.

Monday night will be dry too and temperatures will range from 11°C to 12°C.

On Tuesday it will be much of the same again. It will be warm and dry with bright spells of sunshine. While it will be cooler along western coasts, top temperatures will range from 20°C to 22°C.

However, rain will develop on Tuesday night. This rain will be heavy and persistent during Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning. The rain will clear from the west, though.

Wednesday will start dry and bright, particularly in the west, and the dry conditions will spread to the east by the middle of the day. Showers will develop in the west again later in the day. Temperatures will range from 17°C to 18°C.

It will be a dry start to Thursday but showers will develop in the west and spread nationwide by the afternoon. Temperatures will be on par with Wednesday or perhaps even a little lower.

For Friday and into the weekend, Met Éireann’s forecast is for continued unsettled conditions with rain, some of it heavy at times.

Farming forecast

Rain

There were three separate rainfall warnings issued by Met Éireann last week.

As much as three to four times the average weekly rain fell in parts of the west and southwest. Elsewhere, rainfall amounts were one and half to two times the average.

Monday and Tuesday will be dry for everyone but a frontal ridge will spread across the country on Tuesday night bringing heavy rain into Wednesday morning. It will continue broken for the rest of the week.

Average rainfall for the whole week is forecast for the east but the western half of the country will get above average rainfall.

Temperatures

Although last Monday and Tuesday were scorchers, mean air temperatures were as much as 1.3°C below average.

It will be warm on Monday and Tuesday of this week but with the rain will come cooler temperatures from the middle of the week.

On the whole, temperatures will be below average for the country.

Drying and field conditions

The fine conditions have resulted in some much-needed soaking on heavy or poorly drained soils.

However, the rain was badly needed on dry soils. Dairy farmers have been buffer feeding and some grass had been burning. There is a big split between west and east in terms of soil moistures deficits, with lands in the east welcoming any moisture.

This week, drying will be good away from any showers but from Wednesday onwards there will be little in the way of drying.