Ireland will bask in glorious sunshine for at least another three days with the mercury hitting 22C on Thursday and Friday.
The country sizzled on Tuesday as September temperatures soared up to as high as 19C in Newport, Co Mayo.
Sun-worshippers here flocked to beaches, coastal areas, scenic spots and parks to lap up the warm early-autumn rays.
Met Éireann forecaster Matthew Martin said: “There’s a high pressure situation pretty much right over Ireland.
“And between now and Saturday morning it’s going to be dry with sunshine by day, clear skies by night and fog patches.
“It’ll get up to 21C on Wednesday with county Galway and possibly south Leinster looking like the warmest.
“It will be dry and mostly sunny; there might be a little bit of cloud in Ulster at times and the sunshine could be a little bit hazy.
“And it’ll also be mostly sunny on Thursday and then Friday is the same, but the only thing is there might be a south-easterly breeze picking up."
Mr Martin said the mercury should hit 21C or 22C on Thursday and Friday with the Midlands and North set to fare best.
But most of the country will get plenty of bright, sunny spells.
He added: “On Thursday it will probably be a little bit cooler across the northwest of Ulster, there might be a little bit more cloud there and a bit of a breeze.
“That’ll be the coolest spot then, but that will then change on Thursday and Friday with similar conditions across the country.
“It’s going to stay in place through until Friday and it’s gradually going to decline into Europe and frontal drops are going to approach from the Atlantic during Saturday, but much of the day across the eastern half of the country will be dry and sunny."
Mr Martin said Saturday morning will start dry and sunny across much of the country, but some rain will push in to the west by the late morning.
He added: “It’ll probably hold dry in east-Leinster and east Ulster until night time.
“But then that rain will push countrywide overnight on Saturday night and then Sunday will be a blustery, showery day.”
The forecaster concluded: “The maximum temperatures are significantly above normal, in the region of three-to-four degrees, but because of the cold nights the mean temperature is only about 1C above average.”
