Carlow officially reaches 'heatwave status' after five days of 25+ degrees

Carlow officially reached “heatwave status” this week after five consecutive days of temperatures being over 25 degrees.

That’s according to Carlow Weatherman, Alan O’Reilly, who shared the news on Facebook.

“We also had a tropical night in Carlow where the temperature at Oak Park didn’t drop below 20c!” the post stated.

It comes following Ireland's experience of sweltering conditions as a plume of extremely hot air, which brought temperatures in excess of 40C to Europe, drifted towards the island this week.

A status yellow high temperature warning has been in place from noon on Tuesday and had been extended until 9 o’clock this morning by Met Éireann.

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Ireland’s national weather agency also issued a yellow-level thunderstorm warning for 16 counties that started yesterday.

“Thunderstorms kicking off in more areas now, including Carlow and Laois along with Northern and Western areas. At 10:45am,” Alan said in his Facebook post.

Cooler air has also been arriving, with temperatures having dropped today.

Milder conditions will continue this weekend and into next week.