Friday evening will be warm and sunny in most areas, although some cloud will develop locally. It will be dry everywhere else, apart from a risk of a shower in west Munster. Highest temperatures will be between 20°C and 23°C, although it will be slightly cooler along exposed coasts due to light onshore breezes.

Tonight, temperatures will drop to between 7°C and 11°C and it will be mainly dry with clear skies.

Saturday is forecasted to be warm and humid, with the best of the sunshine in Munster and Connacht. It will be somewhat cloudier in Leinster and Ulster with some rain over northern parts. Highest temperatures will range from 20°C to 24°C with little or no wind.

It will be mainly dry on Saturday night, but rain will move into eastern parts of Leinster and Ulster overnight. Lowest temperatures will range from 9°C to 12°C.

It will be a dry start on Sunday in Munster and Connacht. Outbreaks of rain in Leinster and Ulster will gradually move westwards and will turn to heavier showers in many areas in the afternoon. The southwest will stay dry and it will brighten up in the northeast too. Warm temperatures will continue with highest temperatures of 20°C to 24°C and light east to southeast breezes.

Bank holiday Monday will be dry with sunny spells to start, but showers will develop in places during the morning and it will become heavy and more widespread during the afternoon and evening.

Highest temperatures will be between 20°C and 23°C with light southeast breezes. On Monday night, showers or longer spells of rain will affect much of north Leinster and Ulster.

Management notes

Nathan Tuffy gives some top tips on reseeding swards, applying fertiliser for second-cut silage and giving a booster clostridial vaccine in the beef management notes.

Between 65% and 80% of soils are low in pH and need lime. This is the cheapest form of fertiliser, yet many farmers have neglected to spread it and soils are now seriously deficient, writes Aidan Brennan in the dairy notes.

Darren Carty covers water intake, creep grazing, blowfly strike and the possibility of a lower kill-out percentage when drafting lambs in 2016 in the sheep notes.

While most crops remain quite clean, there is some mildew about and rusts are an additional risk in the warm conditions. Many spring crops would now benefit from rain to help nutrient stress, writes tillage editor Andy Doyle.