Forecast issued at: Sunday 19th July 2026 13:00
Rain
There has been little to no rainfall across the country over the past week with accumulations below 0.1mm at all stations (between 0 and 1% of average). With this settled spell continuing, rainfall will remain well below average across the country through the week ahead, with very little in the way of appreciable rainfall. Most stations are forecast to see little or no rain although there is some uncertainty in rainfall amounts next Saturday. The exception to this is northwestern and western coastal areas where rainfall amounts between 7 and 10mm are expected over the coming week, which is between 40 and 50% of normal. Most other areas are expected to see between 10 and 30% of their average rainfall for the time of year, with less than 5% expected in parts of the southeast.
Temperatures
Mean air temperatures were well above average over the past week, with the exception of northern areas where temperatures were close to normal. Temperatures ranged from 15.4 degrees in the coastal north to 20. degrees in the mid-west, which is between 0.5 and 5.0 degrees above average. Mean soil temperatures are also well above normal, ranging from 17.8 degrees in the northwest to 24 degrees in the south. This is between 3.3 and 7.1 degrees above normal. While temperatures will gradually decrease over the the coming week, they will remain above normal for the south and east by 1 or 2 degrees. Temperatures will be closer to normal in the north and west. Soil temperatures will likely remain similar or decrease slightly in some parts.
Sunshine
It was much sunnier than average nationwide over the past week with sunshine amounts ranging between 230% and 312% of average. It was sunniest in the southeast with 104.4 hours of sunshine recorded at Johnstown Castle, Co. Wexford (277% of average). Malin Head, Co. Donegal recorded the lowest amount of sunshine with 79.5 hours or 258% of its average. With the continued settled spell, sunshine amounts will likely remain above normal for most parts of the country over the coming days, though not quite by the margin that they are at right now, as there will be more cloud feeding in from the Atlantic over the coming week compared to last week, especially in northern and northwestern areas.
Drying Conditions
Drying conditions will be very good over the coming days due to settled and warm conditions.
Spraying
There will be good opportunities for spraying over the coming days with dry conditions and light to moderate winds.
Field Conditions
Soils are trafficable at present in parts of the west and north with soil moisture deficits (SMDs) ranging from 25 to 50mm, with some restriction to growth. Grounds are hard elsewhere in the country with SMDs between 55 and 85mm generally and growth is either increasingly restricted or near drought. SMDs will see little change over the coming week, ranging from 30mm in northern coastal parts to 90mm in parts of the southeast.
Further Comments
A condition orange high fire risk has been issued by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Arising from continued high temperature weather patterns a high fire risk is deemed to exist in all areas where hazardous fuels such as dead grasses and shrub fuels such as heather and gorse exist. Elevated fire risks are expected in all areas during this period but will be especially focussed on eastern regions. With soil moisture deficits increasing there is an added risk of underground peat fires on bogs where fires occur and an increased availability of larger fuel types across all land types.
