The warmer air on Thursday combined with the sunshine, especially in the morning, pushed the thermometer to 15.3C at 14.15 being 1.2C above my 40-year average. It was the warmest day since 17th March (15.9C). The warm, moist air also brought more rain with brief, light showers at 16.45 and more persistent rain starting at 19.00 amounting to 7.5mm. This took the monthly total to 29.6mm, which is 52% of my 40-year average of 57.1mm, within the first four days of April. The majority of the rainfall on Thursday missed our area travelling northeastwards just to the north and south.
The thermometer did not drop below 11.2C, logged at 04.38 early Friday, thanks to the warm air and cloud minimising loss of warmth into the thermosphere.
By 08.00 on Friday there were very brief bursts of sunshine but a predominantly cloudy sky with the thermometer reading 11.4C at 08.00 making it the warmest start to a day at that time since 15th February.
Storm Kathleen, named by Met Eireann, as it will impact them the greatest, is currently off the coast of Portugal but forecast to move northwards up the west coast of Ireland. Between midnight and 12.00 today the centre of this depression is forecast to deepen rapidly dropping a very significant 22mb in 12 hours. This indicates that the wind will rise significantly over the next two days as the depression closes in, also bringing more rain.
