Parts of Ireland are enjoying the hottest day of the year so far

Parts of Ireland are enjoying the hottest day of the year so far as temperatures soar to 24 degrees in the northwest.

In Co Sligo and Co Donegal, temperatures reached 24 degrees on Monday, almost 10 degrees warmer than average for May.

Following one of the warmest weekends this year, the sunshine and humid conditions are set to continue into the week.

Met Éireann forecaster Evelyn Cusack said the temperatures were about 10 degrees above average for this time of the year.

“The average for early May would be the mid-teens. The reason it was so cold about two weeks ago was the air was coming down from the Arctic and that’s why we go snow and hail showers,” she said.

Ms Cusack said the air coming from France, Spain and the Bay of Biscay up through Ireland had brought warm and humid conditions.

“It’s really sunny and a beautiful day in the north and north west, they’ve escaped the cloud. Today is the hottest day of the year so far for them,” Ms Cusack said.

“But a lot of the country is cloudy and in some place some heavy and thundery showers,” Ms Cusack said.

Ms Cusack said most of the country had reached temperatures of 20 degrees on Monday while Cork and the southern parts of Munster stayed at about 15 degrees. “It’s really quite miserable weather for them,” she said.

Looking ahead fo r the rest of the week, Ms Cusack said it would be mixed but mild.

“More of the same for the rest of the week. Some warm sunshine but some heavy and thundery downpours,” she said.

It will get cooler on Wednesday with a top temperature of 18 degrees with hazy sunshine, cloud and mist expected.

Met Éireann predicted the weather will be much drier and “fresher” from Thursday with a mix of sunny spells and cloudy periods.

There will be some scattered light showers with moderate winds.

Friday will be much cooler with night temperatures dropping to 4 degrees.

Next week looks set to be mostly dry with cooler temperatures that are normal for this time of the year but colder than this week.

Irish people have welcomed the warmer weather following the coldest and dullest April in decades.

The latest Met Éireann report showed it was the coldest April in Dublin in 16 to 30 years, with mean temperatures between 1 to 1.5 degrees below average.

Official figures released by Met Éireann showed temperatures dropped as low as -3 degrees Celsius in Sligo last month.

Dublin recorded its coldest April in 27 years - with ground frost recorded in the capital on 23 days of the month.

The city also endured its dullest April since 1998, according to records from the weather station at Casement Aerodrome.