A place in the sun after months of rain

THE SCHOOLS have returned after a rain-soaked summer. It can only mean one thing – an Indian summer is on its way.

The settled weather, which eluded this country since a glorious spell in early June, has arrived.

The prayers for good weather, called for by the Bishop of Ferns Dr Denis Brennan last week so that the harvest could be saved, would appear to have been answered.

A high-pressure area which has been trying to build up all summer has arrived. Met Éireann is forecasting dry, sunny weather for at least the next 10 days.

Temperatures are set to peak at an unseasonably warm (for mid-September at least) 21 degrees this weekend.

It is too late for holidaymakers who opted to stay in Ireland this year, schoolchildren and for most festival-goers.

Fans who went to the Oxegen and Electric Picnic festivals had to endure a sea of mud.

It is not too late, though, for the 7,000 fans expected at the Cois Fharraige music festival in Kilkee, Co Clare, this weekend, which features The Zutons, Doves, The Hold Steady, and Noah and the Whale among others.

It is also good news for those going to the very last major outdoor music event of the summer – the Coldplay concert in the Phoenix Park on Monday.

Met Éireann forecaster Dr Aidan Nulty said there have been a number of Indian summers in recent years after wet summers (most notably in 2007) but it was just coincidental.

The fine weather will be an enormous relief to farmers who have had to endure a third waterlogged summer in a row.

Teagasc’s programme manager for tillage Jim O’Mahony said the situation was even worse than in previous wet summers as only half the grain harvest has been saved to date.

“It is a small bit late, but without it we would have very big losses because yields are only fair and prices are down.

“ If we hadn’t got this weather we would lose the rest of the harvest and farmers would face severe hardship.”