Met Éireann has warned that temperatures in many parts of Ireland won’t fall below 15° over the next few days and urged the vulnerable to avoid heat stress.

A status yellow weather warning has been issued for Leinster and Munster and  Joanna Donnelly, a meteorologist with Met Éireann, said temperatures will remain hot overnight: 

“It [the heatwave] starts on Thursday and really we issue these warnings because the overnight temperatures aren’t going to fall below 15°,” she explained to Newstalk Breakfast.

“15° on the minimum temperature and 27° on the high temperature.” 

Ms Donnelly said it was particularly important that the vulnerable take precautions: 

“We’re just not acclimatised to those sorts of temperatures here in Ireland… There are vulnerable in society that need that extra caution overnight especially,” she continued. 

“Stay hydrated, close your curtains and your windows through the day and try to keep the temperature in the bedroom as low as possible.” 

A girl relaxes in a deckchair.

Such prolonged periods of hot weather are unusual in Ireland and the alert will remain in place until Sunday:

“An anticyclone just moved up over the country and it’s warm air circulating around, just getting warmer and warmer each day because it hasn’t changed, it hasn’t moved off yet,” Ms Donnelly added. 

“So we are actually getting some more warmer air moving up over the country from later on today. So it’s kind of adding to the heat that we’ve been building over the last few days.” 

Last month Ireland recorded its second hottest day in history when a temperature of 33° was recorded in Dublin’s Phoenix Park.

Main image: A girl drinks cool water. Picture by: AP Photo/Lewis Joly.