Ireland has just experienced the warmest day of the year – with the highest temperature of 2011 recorded in Dublin’s Phoenix Park on Wednesday afternoon.

Weather records were broken when the temperature gauge soared to 25.5 degrees, surpassing the previous high of 25.4 set in Carlow in June.

The temperatures on Wednesday afternoon were the highest ever recorded so late in the month with most of the country over 20 degrees.

But not all the country enjoyed the brief Indian summer – Cork and Kerry were overcast and cloudy while the sunny south east was warm but wet for most of Wednesday.
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Expert Mark Dunphy, editor of www.irishweatheronline.com, revealed that the mixed weather was due to a rain front coming in from the Atlantic Ocean clashing with a high pressure system travelling from continental Europe.

“Along the east coast it was about eight to 10 degrees warmer than the average for September but along the south and southwest coast it was a completely different day,” said Dunphy.

“The sunny weather won’t last long and, unfortunately, talk of a heatwave is premature.

“What makes it unusual is that we have come off one of the coolest summers for 30 or 40 years.”
Persistent rain, more usual for this time of the year, is expected to return to all parts of Ireland by the weekend.