Midlands may bear brunt of wettest weather today

The Midlands could bear the brunt of expected heavy and thundery showers today.

The Midlands could bear the brunt of expected heavy and thundery showers today.

Met Éireann said there had been 20-30 mm of rain, more than an inch, between Saturday and Sunday and "there is potentially the same again in store over the next 24 hours".

With no wind expected, the heavy showers "can sit over one place and dump a lot of rain, while 10 miles down the road the sun is shining", according to forecaster, Mr Gerald Fleming.

While the precise location of the heaviest thundery showers remained unclear yesterday evening, it could well be the Midlands which faces similar rains to the flash floods experienced last Wednesday.

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Overall, it will be a warm and sticky day today - that is, when it's not raining. Temperatures are expected to reach 21 or 22 degrees Celsius, and according to Mr Fleming; "it will be very pleasant, when you're not caught in a shower".

A decent bit of sunshine is expected in the morning, but as the ground warms up it often leads to the heaviest showers in the late afternoon, according to Met Éireann.

Asked if the recent Irish weather experience was the tail-end of the hurricane in Florida, the forecaster said that "if you trace its heritage back far enough to its great, great-grandfather the Florida hurricane of 10 days ago is related."

In Cork yesterday, there was relief that the expected 'monsoon-like' weather missed the county. Cork County Council had sandbags ready, but the morning's heavy rain eased to intermittent showers in the afternoon.