Get ready for a weekend of sunscreen, ice-cream and melting roads. Met Eireann is predicting today's temperatures to equal or even surpass yesterday's and says the good times will continue - although with slight interruptions - into the weekend.
Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far, beating anything we got last summer.
The highest temperature recorded was at Clones, Co Monaghan, where 27 Celsius was reached in the early afternoon. Although parts of the south were left out of it, most of the country enjoyed glorious sunshine from soon after sunrise at 5.07 a.m. until a few hours before sunset at 9.52 p.m.
In Dublin, where temperatures reached 25.4, people were heading in their thousands for beaches, parks and anywhere basking could be done. Mr David Ryan, a ticket-seller at Killiney DART station, said the station had been "intensely busy".
"It has certainly been the busiest day I have seen all year. I've been here since two o'clock and I'd say 2,000 passed through."
On the west coast, the picture was the same. Mr Brian Higgenbotham, of Salthill Amusements in Galway, described Salthill as "wedged with people".
"There's no room to move in the car-parks. The beach is full of bodies, though no one is in the water." There was no stopping them in the south-east, however, where in Courtown, Co Wexford, people were "swimming as well as sunbathing", according to Ms Laura Masterson, of the Courtown Entertainment Complex. She said it was "a lot busier than your usual summer Wednesday".
Meanwhile, AA Roadwatch was warning all travelling Saw Doctors that their beloved N17 was melting between Gort and Ennis, with further reports of molten surfaces in counties Offaly, Tipperary and Westmeath.
Fog and low cloud were dampening the mood in the extreme south. Temperatures reached just 18.5 at Cork Airport.
