Highest ever August heat recorded at Finner weather station

Met Éireann yesterday confirmed that the Finner Camp weather station recorded its highest ever August temperature reading on record of 26.5C last Saturday.

And that was almost ten degrees warmer than was recorded on Tuesday, when the mercury only hit 16.7C.

The heat of last week was not enough to be classified as an ‘official’ heatwave in the north west, as it fell short of five straight days above 25C that were required for such a classification..

But it did not detract the tens of thousands who made their way to multiple blue flag beaches in the county.

Donegal temperatures officially hit the 26.5C mark as of 5pm on Saturday afternoon, readings from the Met Éireann weather station at Finner Camp indicated.

This was the second day running that the temperature had hit "heatwave" criteria (above 25C) with Finner also reaching 25.4C on Friday, as part of the recent spell of good weather.

Across the border in Castlederg, Co Tyrone the thermometer was registering 27C by mid afternoon on Saturday.

Last Friday an unofficial temperature reading from Patrick Kelly in Killygordon also saw the mercury in East Donegal hit the 26 degree mark, he confirmed.

Ironically, the county's only other official weather station at Malin Head recorded a much more respectable 18.1C by the middle of Saturday afternoon last, the lowest of any of the country's Met Éireann weather stations.

But it too had been above 21C earlier last week.

In July, mean temperatures for the month were lowest at Malin Head, with 14.7 °C (0.3 °C above its LTA).