No end in sight to heatwave

Seamus Enright

With rain clouds a distant memory, local retailers are cheerfully reporting a run on electric fans and paddling pools as Cavan residents try to survive the sweltering conditions.
Last Thursday, June 28 was the highest temperature in the heatwave with the mercury rising 28.3c, 0.3c higer than the previous record for County Cavan in June. 
According to several businesses contacted by the Celt, demand for electric household fans has skyrocketed and, despite the threat of a nationwide hosepipe ban, so too has there been an increase in demand for paddling pools and other garden water leisure features.
Noel Lynch of Lynch’s of Arvagh, a shop widely regarded as one of the best locations for a 99 ice cream when readers were polled online, admitted there has been a “steady queue” of customers looking for cones and other chilled treats.
“There has been a great run here on ice cream in the sunshine. We’ve had a good name for ice cream for a long number of years. It was something brought in by my father. We’re in business now 40 years and it’s good ice cream is one of the things we’ve kept going.
“It’s great, we have our locals and then we have a lot of people passing through the town stopping off for want of a cone.”
It’s estimated more than two million ice creams are being sold nationally each week during the prolonged spell of hot weather and Mr Lynch gave an indicator of where tastes lie among ice cream lovers reaching for the fridge.
HB’s “Iceberger is definitely a popular one,” he says, adding that the traditional Maxi Twist and classic Choc Ice continue to “hold their own”.
Apart from this coming Thursday, July 5, when Met Éireann forecast a dip in temperatures, the warmer climes look set to stay.
Meteorologist and former TV weather presenter for Met Éireann, Joan Blackburn, told the Celt that Thursday is set to give way to “cloudier conditions” with temperatures of up to 21 degrees and the slight chance of drizzly rain in some areas of the region.
Friday however will see a return to “dry, warm and sunny” weather, with those conditions expected to “continue to prevail” throughout the coming weekend with Saturday temperatures forecast at up to 26 degrees. Indications at this early stage suggest the dry, warm and settled spell will also persist into the early days of next week.