It’s a cloudy start to the week, with scattered showers becoming widespread this afternoon and merging to longer spells of rain in Connacht, Ulster and north Leinster. Conditions will improve towards Monday evening as showers will gradually become isolated and some sunny spells develop. It will be cooler than of late with afternoon temperatures only 14°C to 16°C in parts of the west and northwest, but milder elsewhere with highs of 17°C to 19°C. Tonight will be mostly dry in the east with some clear spells, but rather cloudy elsewhere with scattered showers affecting the western half of the country.

Tuesday will also be a cloudy day with scattered showers. In western coastal areas, rain will develop during the late afternoon extending to all areas by evening and turning persistent in some places. Winds will be light westerly or variable, but in coastal areas of Munster and south Leinster southwesterly winds will freshen in the evening. Highest temperatures will range between 16°C in the northwest to 20°C or 21°C in the south.

Persistent rain Tuesday night will clear eastwards with light variable winds becoming northwesterly and lowest temperatures of 9°C to 14°C.

Midweek

Wednesday will be dry and bright in many areas as any rain in the east clears into the Irish Sea. Scattered showers will develop during the day but there will be some good sunny spells too. Highest temperatures will range from 17°C to 20°C in light westerly breezes. Outbreaks of rain and drizzle followed by more persistent rain are forecast for Wednesday night. These will become widespread overnight into Thursday morning.

The rain may turn heavy and persistent in parts of Ulster during the early hours of Thursday morning, but will clear for bright or sunny spells and scattered showers in the afternoon. Highest temperatures will range from 17°C to 20°C.

Friday is expected to be mostly dry with light winds, sunny spells and just a few showers.

Farming weather

Rain

Rainfall was below normal in all parts of the country last week, with most places recording less than 50% of normal for the time of year. This amounted to an accumulation of less than 10mm over the seven days for all except northern and western coastal districts. During the coming seven days, current predictions indicate roughly normal accumulations for the end of July in most parts of Ireland. However, many parts of south and east Munster, as well as south Leinster, are predicted to be drier than normal, with accumulations of only 70% of normal or less.

Temperatures

Mean air temperatures for the past week were above normal across the board, with most places recording positive anomalies of 1.5°C to 2.5°C. The early days of the period were particularly warm, with most parts of the country recording their highest daily maxima of the year so far on either Monday or Tuesday last. Cooler than normal temperatures are expected in most places, with negative anomalies of 0.5°C to 1°C transpiring generally.

Sunshine

Last week was sunnier than normal in most places, particularly in eastern counties where up to 150% of normal sunshine hours were recorded. However, it was slightly duller than normal in north Munster and Connacht. In the next week, a lot of cloud is likely to prevail. Therefore, most areas are likely to have a duller than normal week.

Drying conditions

With moist Atlantic air over the country on most days in the week ahead, and with rain or showers occurring frequently, drying conditions will be no better than moderate in most areas.

Spraying

Damp conditions in the days ahead will prevent effective spraying much of the time but there will be occasional opportunities.

Field conditions

All lands are trafficable and will remain so during the week ahead.