Northern Ireland to sizzle in April temperatures hotter than Spain, Greece and Portugal

The unseasonally warm weather will see temperatures in Northern Ireland soar above those in popular holiday spots. The Met Office is forecasting temperatures above 20 °C on Tuesday and Wednesday while in Athens it will be 14 °C, Faro 18 °C and Malaga 20 °C.

There’s even a chance that the record for the highest April temperature in Northern Ireland may be broken.

Met Office meteorologist Clare Nasir described this week's weather conditions in Northern Ireland as “absolutely sublime”.

Clare explained that day on day from Monday to Wednesday, there has been an increase of two degrees of heat every day.

“Yesterday (Monday) we saw 19 °C in Armagh, today we are likely to be 21. Tomorrow we are peaking with the heat around 23 degrees but I think locally it could be slightly higher than that,” she told Radio Ulster.

"It is all courtesy of an area of high pressure, just light winds, a little cloud drifting along the sky and obviously that strong sunshine as well.”

While the whole of Northern Ireland will enjoy lovely weather and temperatures into the 20s, along the coastline it could be slightly lower due to an onshore breeze.

It is likely to be warmest in Counties Fermanagh, Tyrone and Londonderry.

Clare added there is a possibility the highest ever April temperature in Northern Ireland might be reached this week.

"The April temperature for Northern Ireland, the max temperature in terms of records, was in 1984 and that was 24.5 C in Londonderry as well as Fermanagh.

"There’s a 10 percent chance we could beat that on Wednesday,” she said.

"It really is unusual. We don’t get these sort of temperatures very often.”

The Met Office said Tuesday will be dry, bright and very warm. All areas can expect a dry day with sunshine although there may be some high cloud.

Tuesday night will be dry with some late brightness. The rest of the night will be dry with clear periods and will be warm in places. The minimum temperature will be 10 °C.

The lovely weather continues into Wednesday, forecast to be another dry day with plenty of sunshine. It will be very warm, with light winds and a maximum temperature of 23 °C.

The weather begins to change on Thursday with forecasters saying it will be a much cooler and cloudier day with the odd light shower, but it will brighten up later. They say Friday and Saturday will be mainly dry but cloudy.