LAST UPDATE | 13 Jul

A STATUS YELLOW high temperature warning is in effect for five counties amid another week of warm weather 

The warning for counties Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Galway and Mayo will remain in place until 7am on Wednesday.

Met Éireann said the counties could see temperatures reach in excess of 27C, with overnight minimum temperatures in excess of 15C.

The forecaster cautioned that as a result of the heat, there are potential water safety issues due to the increased use of lakes and beaches. 

A 15-year-old boy died on Saturday evening after getting into difficulty in Lough Ree in Co Westmeath.

Met Éireann also warned of heat stress, uncomfortable sleeping conditions, the possibility of forest fires and drought.

In a meteorologist’s commentary published today, Met Éireann said that the very warm, dry and settled spell will continue this week.

It said that daytime temperatures will widely be in the 20s, possibly reaching 30 degrees in some places.

It will also remain warm and humid at night with temperatures often not falling below 15 degrees.

Met Eireann pointed to an area of high pressure currently centred near the Faroe Islands as maintaining the dry, settled and largely sunny conditions across Ireland.

Temperatures will be highest in the west, south and midlands at first this week, with slightly cooler temperatures near eastern coasts.

Later this week, a weak area of low pressure to the south will introduce some instability across Ireland.

This instability will bring the potential for some heavy showers or thunderstorms in parts of the south and west on Wednesday and Thursday.

Meanwhile, current indications suggest that high pressure will remain close to Ireland through Friday and the weekend, with the dry conditions persisting.

However, a northerly airflow will become established, which will bring slightly lower temperatures to the north and northwest with daytime temperatures generally in the high teens, while further south, temperatures will remain in the low to mid-20s.

Uisce Éireann ‘tankering water’

Uisce Éireann is set to impose a six-week hosepipe ban on six counties across Ireland from later this week. 

The ban will be implemented from midnight this Thursday until 11.59pm on Wednesday 26 August in areas of the country that are experiencing shortages in water supply.

The affected counties include Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow, Meath, South Tipperary and coastal areas in Wexford.

It had earlier warned that localised hose pipe bans are becoming “increasingly likely” due to the continuing high temperatures.

“It is a legal process, and there are certain steps that we have to go through, and we need to get approval from various state bodies,” Uisce Éireann’s regional water operations manager Stephen Burke told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

“But we absolutely we are preparing for that.”

Asked if it is possible that some areas could run out of water this week due to the heat, Burke said that Uisce Éireann are “tankering water quite heavily in various parts of the country from areas that are not under pressure to areas that are under pressure”.

“We would always endeavour to provide alternative water supplies to areas where we know there might be an issue with an enduring or a continuous supply of drinking water.”