Visitor from Azores to bring sunny spell

AN ELUSIVE summer visitor is likely to bring a welcome spell of settled weather this week.

The Azores high, which was conspicuous by its absence from here for the last three summers, should be over the country by now bringing with it fine weather “for the foreseeable future”, according to Met Éireann

Tomorrow and Thursday will see highs of 22 or 23 degrees. Although there is a small risk of a shower on Thursday in western areas, there is none at all for the rest of the week and into next week.

The summer weather in Ireland is determined by the position of the Azores high.

If it is south of the jet stream, it usually means unsettled weather leaving Ireland at the mercy of Atlantic fronts, as has been the case for last three summers.

If it is north of the jet stream, it can mean a long spell of settled weather.

The Azores high led to the hot summers of 1976 and 1995.

Met Éireann forecaster Vincent O’Shea said: “All the signs are for a protracted fine spell to extend into next week. There is a chance that it could hang around a lot longer than a week, but our forecasts do not stretch that far, but it is looking good.”

Mr O’Shea said soil moisture deficits – the amount of rainfall the soil can absorb before the water runs off – are between 40mm and 50mm in many places, which is below average because of the relatively dry weather of the spring and early summer.

However, he said the country was a long way from drought conditions.

“You would 15 days of less than 0.1mm of rain in succession to qualify as a drought,” he said.