A Status Yellow warning for potato blight for Co. Clare has been issued today (Wednesday, May 4) by Met Éireann.
The national forecaster said that weather conditions will be conducive to the spread of potato blight in early sown crops in parts of the banner county from Friday evening (May 6) through to Saturday afternoon (May 7).
Met Éireann stated that opportunities will exist for spraying for the rest of today and during Thursday (tomorrow, May 5).
The blight warning is due to expire on Saturday at 1:00p.m.
Teagasc estimates that €5 million is spent annually on fungicides in Ireland to mitigate the impacts of the disease, which represents between 15-20 fungicide applications per season.
Meanwhile, Met Éireann has said that the weather today will be mainly dry with cloud and sunny spells.
It will be mild and humid with top temperatures of 14° to 18° in light to moderate northwesterly breezes.
Tonight it will remain dry with some clear spells developing. Cloud is set to build from the west as the night progresses, bringing patchy light rain and drizzle to the north and west.
Temperatures will fall back to between 6° and 10° and some mist and fog patches will form in the calm conditions.
Thursday will start mostly cloudy but there will be brighter spells in the southeast. There may be some showers in the afternoon and evening but rainfall amounts will be small.
It will be humid and mild again with daytime temperatures of 14° to 18° in light to moderate southwesterly winds.
Met Éireann said that Friday will be a wet day but conditions will improve over the weekend.