Barbecue hopes rekindled: thunder storms and flooding will give way to glorious sun

THUNDERY and humid weather will give way to glorious sunshine, meaning there is hope of dusting off the barbecue before the end of this bank holiday weekend.

Violent storms, power cuts and possible flooding were expected overnight before the nation dries out in the sunshine once again.

Workers finishing up last night would have feared the worst for the weekend as torrential downpours hit the country, with Met Éireann issuing a Status Orange thunder warning.

A number of sheep were killed in a lightning strike at the Co Donegal village of Drumkeen.

The weather warning remained in place until 10pm yesterday, with a Status Yellow rain warning also in place for large swathes of the country.

While temperatures were as high as 24C, it was muggy with rainfall of up to 50mm.

However, while there will still be showers during the course of today, conditions are set to improve as the weekend goes on.

Showers will mainly be in eastern counties and become more widespread in the afternoon, with a chance of heavy rain and possibly thunder, particularly in the west and north-west.

Runners in the Women’s Mini-Marathon tomorrow will be hoping forecasts of sunny weather in Dublin over the weekend stay true to the predictions.

The good news is that tomorrow looks set to be a warm, largely dry day.

Temperatures could possibly reach the mid-20s on Monday and Tuesday with further sunny spells expected.

The warm and humid weather with light breezes is set to continue, with good sunny periods each day and scattered heavy showers at times.

But as the summer brings better weather, hay fever sufferers will welcome the sunshine with caution. The national forecaster warns that as we enter June, the pollen count is set to be high.