Met Éireann issue potato blight warning for Ireland

As if things couldn't get any worse in 2020, Met Éireann has just issued a potato blight warning for Ireland.

Having endured tropical storms, coronavirus, and lockdowns already this year, Ireland must now brace itself for the threat of potato blight, the fungus which caused the Irish Famine in the 19th century.

Met Éireann said on Wednesday that "conditions conducive to the spread of potato blight will occur this weekend."

Potato blight is spread in warm, humid conditions and there generally needs to be a 12-hour period with temperatures above 10 degrees and humidity higher than 90%.

Blight is a fungus that causes disease in potatoes and tomatoes. The fungus was the primary cause of the Irish potato famine from 1845-1850 which killed around two million people and forced a further two million people to emigrate.

Blight warnings usually surface in May since conditions are generally ideal to spread the fungus.

The forecast of warm and humid conditions does not mean that there will be any improvement in Irish weather, however.

Met Éireann is predicting scattered showers throughout the day on Saturday with the possibility of heavy showers and thunderstorms on Saturday evening.

The warm and humid conditions are expected to continue into Sunday but, unfortunately, so is the heavy rain.

Met Éireann is forecasting slow-moving heavy showers across the country with prolonged showers expected. The meteorological service is predicting some flooding and hail showers in some parts of the country.

The humid conditions are expected to continue until Tuesday at least, meaning that the blight warning will likely be extended after the weekend.

Regrettably, scattered and heavy showers are also expected to continue into next week.

After a glorious heatwave at the beginning of the month, conditions have worsened considerably with consistent rainfall and temperatures dropping to as low as 46F during the day.

With the country slowly emerging from COVID-19 lockdown, Irish weather picked the worst time to plummet and, with the imminent threat of potato blight, it doesn't look like conditions will be getting better any time soon.

With coronavirus already gripping Ireland and blight on the way, what other nightmarish scenarios will find their way to Irish shores by the end of 2020?