Wet weather expected in coming days after sunshine but temperatures to rise

Despite rain warning warmer evenings are set to return to NI

THE glorious sunshine is set to come to an end on Monday as the Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for rain — but temperatures will remain high throughout the week.

The warning for rain will be in place from 12pm today to 6am on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the Met Office said spells of rain will be heaviest across eastern areas of NI, which will then push north east across much of the country.

“Rain will be heavy at times, and persistent, especially across areas exposed to brisk east-southeasterly winds. Widely 15mm to 30mm of rain is likely across the warning area, with as much as 50 to 60 mm across the Mournes,” said the Met Office.

The Met Office said flooding of a “few homes and businesses is likely”, public transport could be affected, spray and flooding of roads could make journey times longer and some interruption to power supplies Is likely.

The mercury surpassed 23C in some areas of NI over the weekend, with thousands of North West 200 fans enjoying the excellent conditions on the north coast.

Aldergrove, Co Antrim, reached the highest temperature for this year on Saturday with 23.8C being recorded.

A close second area for the warmest temperature was Derrylin in Co Fermanagh on Friday, where figures of 23.7C were recorded.

However, predicted heavy rain and cooler conditions broke the summery trend yesterday, as the Met Office issued a separate yellow warning for thunderstorms.

Over 2,000 homes were left without power in Ballymoney, Co Antrim, after a lightning strike caused damage to the network, according to NI Electricity.

The warning was issued while a gorse fire raged in the Mourne Mountains near Hilltown, Co Down.

A spokesperson for the NI Fire and Rescue Service said eight pumping appliances and 64 firefighters were called to the scene of the blaze on the Leitrim Road area yesterday.

Crews remained at the scene to dampen down the area after it was extinguished.

Met Office meteorologist Marco Pentagnas said there will be outbreaks of rain arriving from the south and southwest this morning, and a wet afternoon set to develop.

“There may be 13 to 15mm of rain quite widely, and locally, 50 to 60mm across the Mournes,” the meteorologist stated.

“For the rest of the week, the weather is set to be very mixed, very changeable and quite warm when the sun comes out, we will see temperatures into the high teens, but quite a few showers.”

Today will see some cooler temperatures as highs of 14 degrees are expected.

Tuesday will see some rain with highs of 17C, while the highest temperatures may be seen on Wednesday and Thursday, with some cloudy conditions.

Friday is expected to reach highs of 16C.