THE RECORD HIGH temperature for the month of May has been provisionally equalled.

Ireland’s record temperature for the month of May of 28.4C was set on 31 May 1997 at Ardfert in Co Kerry.

It looks like that temperature was matched today at Oak Park in Co Carlow.

A Met Éireann spokesperson told The Journal that while it looks like this record high has been matched, this will need to be verified.

“All of our data is always verified and we have strict high-quality control measures in place between climate and our instrumentation teams that would be able to verify to ensure these numbers are the most accurate.”

The spokesperson added that it’s “absolutely possible” that the record high for the month of May will surpass 28.4C.

Earlier today, Met Éireann meteorologist Gerry Murphy remarked that while it was possible for May’s record to be broken today, it is more likely to be broken tomorrow.

Murphy said it will be “even warmer, especially over the southern half of the country”.

Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One, he said the current weather conditions are due to a large area of high pressure over much of central Europe.

Looking further ahead into the week, Murphy said that temperatures will remain high on Wednesday but will not be “quite as hot”.

On Thursday, Murphy said there will likely be a few showers and while drier weather will come on Friday, there could be further rain over the weekend, with temperatures coming down to the low 20s.