As pubs and restaurants prepare to open for outdoor customers for the first time in almost six months the outlook is good for a warm Bank Holiday weekend.
Met Eireann has forecast a mostly dry three days with temperatures tipping towards 20C.
A dank and drizzly start on Saturday gave way to bright sunshine with the warmest weekend weather in the Midlands, East and North East, while holidaymakers heading West will feel slightly cooler.
Met Eireann’s Siobhan Ryan told the Irish Mirror: “The temperature range will be 14C to 19C, possibly 20C this weekend.
“Up along the Atlantic seaboard those temperatures will be more like 14C, 15C, 16C.
“Rainfall amounts will be fairly small but we do have some frontal systems bringing some falls of rain. Saturday should brighten up into the afternoon, you’re going to get more sunny spells at that point.
“Overall conditions for the evening will be fairly pleasant, dry, nice spells of summer sunshine and the winds will be lightish as well.”
Sunday looks like the best of the weekend weather with a fully dry day in light southerly breezes.
Ms Ryan added: “You might, if you’re unlucky, meet a shower in over parts of Leinster.
“Monday promises to bring a lot of dry weather again, isolated showers in daylight hours and through the evening you might see some damp drizzly weather moving into Atlantic fringes.”
On Tuesday, temperatures will range between 16 to 21 degree.
It will be warmest in the east and the midlands, in mainly moderate southerly breezes.
Wednesday will see highs of up to 22C as mini-heatwave conditions see plenty of sun and very little rain.
Expert Alan O'Reilly from Carlow Weather said an "Azores high" system could bathe the country in sunshine even 10 days from now - but warned there was still uncertainty as some models show a low pressure system pushing it back.
He said: "The latest GFS trends for next 7 days are positive with temperatures increasing and very little rainfall.
"However the latest operational run wants to bring a low pressure across the Atlantic and push the Azores high back in 10 days time. Possibly an outlier, we’ll see soon."
