Summer flatters only to deceive as rain set to return

Pity the poor English, if you can, facing into a five-day forecast promising sunshine and heat waves

Pity the poor English, if you can, facing into a five-day forecast promising sunshine and heat waves. It can only lead to trouble with sunburn, burnt barbecue food and ant-infested picnics.

Ireland won't have to worry about these seasonal dangers, with Met Eireann quickly dismissing any such chance of summer breaking out here.

While the south of England is expected to bask in temperatures rising to 25 degrees Celsius, and even higher, through the weekend, our own weather will be "quite mixed".

Met Eireann further clarified this as meaning "pretty miserable", with a mix of cloud and showers, drizzle and wind.

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Yesterday's dalliance with summer kept most of the State in the sunshine, according to Met Eireann, with only the north and north-west under cloud cover.

Temperatures remained lacklustre in some areas, however. Kilkenny enjoyed a creditable 21.2C and Dublin recorded 20C, but poor Valentia suffered through a positively chilly 16.9C despite the sunshine.

Things were different in Britain yesterday. Thermometers at Heathrow Airport managed 26C.

Our neighbours in Britain can expect things to get toasty by the weekend, with meteorologists predicting temperatures as high as 30 C.

We will have none of that here, thank you. We can expect mixed conditions, with cloud and sunshine. It will be warm but cloudy in the east until Sunday, when it is expected to become windy.

Rain and drizzle will also make a welcome return to Ireland between now and the weekend, taking us all away from this troublesome sunshine

Dick Ahlstrom

Dick Ahlstrom

Dick Ahlstrom, a contributor to The Irish Times, is the newspaper's former Science Editor.