The Met Office is predicting plenty of sunshine this week with the mercury expected to notch up a little bit further with each passing day, peaking in the mid 20s.

Forecaster Zoe Hutin said dry and fine weather is on the cards with only light winds expected.

Temperatures could climb to as high as 24C, close to the current record.

“The warmest April day on record for Northern Ireland was in 1984 when the temperature reached 24.5C in Broom Hall, Derry,” Ms Hutin explained. “We could come close on Wednesday.

“Bear in mind that Thursday is the first [day] of a new month, and we are some way off the May record of 28.3C which was set in Lisburn, Co Antrim.”

Despite rumours of a heatwave hitting the region, the Met Office has now ruled it out as things are expected to “cool off” later in the week.

“Highs of 23-24 C are expected for NI, peaking on Wednesday or Thursday.

“This is not within the range to be considered a heatwave, to qualify as a heatwave NI would need three consecutive days with temperatures exceeding 25C.

“We expect things to cool somewhat from Friday onwards, so we will not reach this mark. From Friday, things will turn cooler as high pressure breaks down, with some cloudier spells and perhaps some spots of rain over the bank holiday weekend.”

After an unseasonably dry April, the month is predicted to end on a high. It’s the earliest in 13 years that temperatures have hit 20C in NI, with the last time being in late March 2012.

Earlier this month, Castlederg in Co Tyrone reached 21.2C, while Thomastown in Co Fermanagh saw 20.7C.

Monday morning will be cloudy but dry in some mist possible along the Co Down coast.

Bright spells are expected to break through in the afternoon with temperatures reaching 18C.

Tuesday could start cloudy with grey skies clearing by afternoon. Wednesday and Thursday will be dry with “very warm sunshine” on both days.

Met Office meteorologist Craig Snell said it will be close to what the Met Office considers a heatwave in some areas of the UK.

The threshold is 25C for most of the UK, with slightly higher numbers for the south and east, and rising to 28C in London.

Temperatures will be “markedly higher” than what they should be for this time of year, as at the end of April it is usually about 12C in the north and 16C in the south, so some areas could be in excess of 10C higher than the average.

Records for April and May are unlikely to be broken as the record for April stands at 29.4C, and May’s record is 32.8C.