Summer wind blows in from across the sea

THE warmest weekend of the year so far is likely to be followed by a drop in temperatures this week, although the forecast is for mainly dry weather to continue.

Met Eireann said yesterday was about 2C warmer in most places than Saturday. Shannon recorded the day's top temperature of 27C and Claremorris had 26C, but even Dublin cooled by offshore breezes reached 23C yesterday afternoon.

From today, the warm winds blowing up from continental Europe will make way for cooler currents from the north.

This will not affect the south of the country until Tuesday, when all parts will be fresher and temperatures will be a maximum 20C or 21C.

By Thursday, some places may experience a few showers but the outlook is for continuing mostly dry weather.

Yesterday's temperatures meant very heavy traffic on coastal roads, but gardai said there had been few problems and no major accidents.

However, four people died in three separate road accidents in the North over the weekend.

The AA said that on Friday evening and again last night it had been "like a bank holiday" on coastal roads.

The Brittas Bay area of Co Wicklow and "most of the N11" were badly affected, as was the area around Kinsale and other west Cork coastal resorts. But, aside from the need for gardai to be deployed on point duty in the towns affected, the traffic created no special problems.

The Marine Emergency Service reported few incidents over the weekend. A spokesman said the public appeared to be heeding warnings about precautions in the use of pleasure craft.