{"id":468071,"date":"2026-05-26T16:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T16:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/468071\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T16:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T16:44:13","slug":"extreme-event-here-is-whats-causing-record-breaking-temperatures-in-ireland-and-europe-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/468071\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Extreme event\u2019: Here is what\u2019s causing record-breaking temperatures in Ireland and Europe \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland and other parts of Europe<\/a> are experiencing record-breaking high temperatures<\/a> because of an \u201cextreme\u201d meteorological event that has caused high pressure to build.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a very substantial blocking event in the atmosphere,\u201d Peter Thorne, director of the Icarus Climate Research Centre at Maynooth University, said. <\/p>\n

\u201cA block is an area of high pressure that gets stuck in place, and this has been stuck in place for several days and it\u2019s enabled heat to build.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an extreme event<\/a>, and then you\u2019ve just got climate change on top, which means when this does happen, it happens with more ferocity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Moore, a climatologist with Met \u00c9ireann<\/a>, said the hot weather is being caused by \u201can intense area\u201d of high pressure over northwest Europe, including Ireland.<\/p>\n

High pressure is being \u201cstacked up through the atmosphere\u201d, leading to \u201csinking air\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pressure is higher, pushing the air down, and that suppresses cloud formation, because cloud forms with rising air,\u201d Moore said. <\/p>\n

He said the air is compressing and causing the heat to rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust think of pumping a tyre on a bicycle \u2013 it heats up because you\u2019re causing the pressure to go up, and so the same thing happens in the atmosphere when you get high pressure over the same area, stacked through the atmosphere for a number of days over and over again.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Met \u00c9ireann issues status yellow high temperature warning for eight countiesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIt keeps the pressure, the air keeps sinking down, and the temperature underneath keeps rising.\u201d <\/p>\n

A temperature of 28.6 degrees was recorded at Shannon Airport on Monday, provisionally breaking the record<\/a> for the highest temperature documented in the month of May by Met \u00c9ireann.<\/p>\n

Moore said there was \u201ca good likelihood\u201d that the May record will be broken again on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Met \u00c9ireann has issued a status yellow high temperature warning<\/a> for eight counties: Clare, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, Galway, Kilkenny, Laois and Offaly. The warning will be in place from midday on Tuesday until 6pm on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The national forecaster has warned of water safety issues due to the increased use of lakes and beaches, potential forest fires, heat stress and uncomfortable sleeping conditions.<\/p>\n

Warnings have been issued in a number of European countries with record-breaking temperatures also recorded in the UK and France<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Extreme heat has huge issues for morbidity, mortality, huge challenges for our farmers, potentially<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Peter Thorne<\/p>\n

Despite the hot weather in recent days, it is not technically a heatwave in the Republic \u2013 Met \u00c9ireann classes a heatwave as five consecutive days with a maximum temperature in excess of 25 degrees at the same weather station. Low pressure is expected to move in over Ireland on Thursday, meaning it\u2019s unlikely the current hot spell will reach that criteria.<\/p>\n

Moore said Ireland was under \u201cArctic air masses\u201d for much of May, leading to \u201ccooler than average\u201d temperatures, but a \u201cwarm air mass\u201d has come up from the south in recent days.<\/p>\n

Thorne described moving from one extreme to another as \u201cweather whiplash\u201d, a phenomenon becoming more common due to climate change. <\/p>\n

He also warned the current hot spell could result in deaths in Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cExtreme heat has huge issues for morbidity, mortality, huge challenges for our farmers, potentially,\u201d Thorne said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUndoubtedly this extreme heat, particularly in houses that are poorly ventilated and are sun traps, will have an impact upon the most vulnerable in society. So, I would be surprised if, in the next week, we didn\u2019t see a spike in death notices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thorne said people whose houses get very hot should make efforts to increase ventilation this week. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the long-term, maybe we will start looking at artificial cooling of houses. From a Government perspective, it\u2019s about opening up libraries, leisure centres, other things as community \u2018cool spaces\u2019, so people can actually go and cool down.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland and other parts of Europe are experiencing record-breaking high temperatures because of an \u201cextreme\u201d meteorological event that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1814,42,76685,1191,43,40,38,41,39,1577,18335],"class_list":["post-468071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-france","tag-headlines","tag-maynooth-university","tag-met-eireann","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uk","tag-weather-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}