Extreme heat: NI records hottest day ever for second time in week

Northern Ireland has provisionally recorded its hottest day on record for the second time in five days.

Met Office thermometers hit 31.3C in Castlederg in County Tyrone on Wednesday afternoon.

The previous record was 31.2C, set at Ballywatticock in County Down on 17 July.

However, standard procedure means that the equipment at both stations must be double checked to confirm the temperatures.

This could take about a week.

The previous confirmed record temperature was 30.8C recorded in both 1978 and 1983.

This will stand as being the official record until the others are verified.

Relief of cooler temperatures in sight

The outlook right through until next week is for it to stay warm.

The good news is there will be relief in terms of how warm it is.

Over the weekend temperatures are generally going to fall back, although they will remain in the low 20s in some places.

Still, this is a difference of about 10 degrees from early part of this week and night time temperatures will also be cooler.

Right through to the end of the week we still have a heat warning in place, which may cause some problems for health and infrastructure.

Northern Ireland is now set to have broken records for the highest and lowest temperatures in just over 10 years.

Both records also look set to belong to Castlederg.

It recorded -18.7C during the big freeze of 2010.

Although it is difficult to pinpoint climate change to a particular record, scientists have been warning that we face more extremes in our weather.

An amber warning for heat has been issued for Northern Ireland until the end of Friday.

The Met Office has issued the extreme heat warning, with Met Éireann warnings also in place in the Republic of Ireland.

The Met Office warning comes with an appeal to watch out for heat exhaustion and sunburn.

NI Water has also asked the public to "use water responsibly" as there is a "possibility" that a hosepipe ban may be introduced.