**Warmer weather signaled for later next week and weekend**

After what was a rather cold may with temperatures below normal for much of the month across Ireland we finally seen a bit of heat over the last few days of the month with the warmest temperatures of the year to date recorded over the weekend on Sunday.

The highest air temperature of 2021 so far was 23.1C, recorded at Newport Furnace, Co Mayo.

22.6C was recorded at Shannon Airport, while 22.5C was recorded in Claremorris, Co Mayo.

Finner in south Donegal ended up been the 5th warmest weather station in Ireland with a temperature of 22.3 C recorded.

This week it will remain on the warm side with some areas across Ireland today temperatures rose into the mid to high teens with parts of Ulster into the low 20s again with highs of 22C.

Temperatures on Thursday and Friday will rise into the mid to high teens but rising into the 20s again across parts of Ulster. Some showers will effect the western half of Ireland on Thursday and Friday but many areas will also see good bright and sunny spells but with these best across the eastern half of Ireland.

BANK HOILDAY WEEKEND

Overall the bank holiday weekend is looking rather nice across Ireland with the weather remaining on the warm side and temperatures again into the mid to high teen and rising as high as 20s in some areas over the weekend. The warmest temperatures this weekend will be across the eastern half of Ireland.

As for rainfall a few showers are expected on Saturday morning across the west and north of Ireland with drier weather across the east and south but these will clear to the east over the afternoon with mostly dry and sunny conditions later Saturday afternoon and evening away from the northeast of Ireland where some heavy showers will continue.

Sunday will be the best day this weekend with a dry day forecast for all areas with temperatures into the mid to high teens again. The latest outlook is for a good bright and sunny day also.

At present Bank Holiday Monday looks set to see some bright and sunny spells again but some scattered rain showers also look possible although rainfall amounts look low over the day.

As we head into the end of next week and next weekend there are strong model out puts from the ECMWF & GFS weather forecast models that we will see high pressure strengthen across Ireland with a much warmer airmass moving up over Ireland with temperatures rising into the low to mid 20s in places. This will become much clearer over the Bank Holiday weekend as at this range there still can be some changes but all the same it great to see models in good agreement of something much warmer.

Below are some of the the latest runs from the ECMWF, GFS and GEM models for the forecast temperatures.