{"id":112616,"date":"2025-05-18T20:50:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T20:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/112616\/"},"modified":"2025-05-18T20:50:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T20:50:13","slug":"northern-ireland-weather-met-office-forecasts-another-week-of-abnormally-dry-and-sunny-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/112616\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland weather: Met Office forecasts another week of \u2018abnormally dry and sunny\u2019 conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"

People have been making the most of the sunshine, with many flocking to the north coast to soak up every bit of the sun.<\/p>\n

Ice cream sellers across the region have been working hard to keep up with demand, with Portstewart\u2019s popular Morelli\u2019s ice cream parlour saying sales have seen a significant boost in recent days.<\/p>\n

Manager Amy Platt said the sunny weather has had a positive impact on the business, with \u201cmany happy faces\u201d seen walking and working along the promenade.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been such a long stretch of warm weather, and our sales have definitely gone up, especially for ice cream,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile sit-in customers aren\u2019t as busy, the great weather means lots of takeaway ice cream sales and people love being out on the promenade enjoying themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe atmosphere is lovely, everybody is more relaxed, happy, and patient. It\u2019s a real mood booster.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Soaking<\/p>\n

Soaking up the sun at Helen’s Bay. Photo: Declan Roughan \/ Press Eye<\/p>\n

Amy said that although the store plans its stock a week in advance and is seeing strong sales, the sunny May weather also presents challenges, particularly with staffing.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat weather makes a huge difference to us as a business. People love to get ice cream and be out enjoying themselves at times like this.<\/p>\n

\u201cMay is always tough for staffing, with many part-timers off doing A-levels and GCSEs, so it\u2019s mainly full-timers and myself managing the high demand.<\/p>\n

\"Tilly<\/p>\n

Tilly and Eimer Short<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just ask customers for patience as we navigate with limited staff, but we are working hard as always to supply the north west with their favourite ice cream.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cWe plan a week ahead to stay on top of orders. Some suppliers have struggled to meet demand, which means occasional shortages of certain flavours. But overall, business has been very successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Met Office spokesperson told the Belfast Telegraph that clouds or rain are unlikely during this working week.<\/p>\n

They added: \u201cFine, dry and settled is the name of the game for Northern Ireland over the next few days. It\u2019s not until next weekend that we should start to see clouds and outbreaks of rain begin to show their hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Temperatures are expected to stay in the high teens to low 20s, sitting \u201ccomfortably around 22\u201323C\u201d throughout the week, with a \u201cslight dip\u201d towards the weekend.<\/p>\n

\"Soaking<\/p>\n

Soaking up the sun at Helen’s Bay. Photo: Declan Roughan \/ Press Eye<\/p>\n

The meteorologist said the sunny spell is unusual for this time of year, adding that while it\u2019s not officially classified as a heatwave, temperatures are higher than normal for spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to hit three consecutive days with temperatures exceeding 25\u00b0C in Northern Ireland to meet the Met Office\u2019s heatwave criteria. We\u2019ve come close but haven\u2019t quite reached that mark. This threshold applies across NI, Scotland, parts of England, and Wales,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not typical. Spring has been exceptionally dry and sunny so far, and we expect this pattern to continue throughout the week.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Met Office spokesperson also warned people to take care in the sun and regularly apply suncream, as UV levels are currently moderate to high, increasing the risk of sunburn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People have been making the most of the sunshine, with many flocking to the north coast to soak…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,16,15,741],"class_list":{"0":"post-112616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-weather"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114530813566337298","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}