A status yellow potato-blight weather advisory is in place for Wednesday June 23, according to Met Éireann.
The national meteorological service has advised that conditions “conducive to the spread of potato blight” will develop in western and northwestern counties – Donegal, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim and Galway – from Wednesday evening (June 23) and will persist into Thursday (June 24).
What does a yellow warning mean?
Weather that does not pose a threat to the general population but is potentially dangerous on a localised scale. Be aware of meteorological conditions and check if you are exposed to danger by nature of your activity or your specific location. Do not take any avoidable risks.
Farming conditions
There will be opportunities for spraying today and tomorrow morning (Tuesday, June 22).
Soils have positive moisture deficits nationwide across all soil types. Generally ranging between 20-60mm with driest soils in eastern counties.
Soils are the least dry in the northwest and in western fringes of Munster, with deficits of around 10mm.
With rain and showers expected from midweek, soil moisture deficits will decrease during midweek, particularly in the northwest, but most areas will still see soil moisture deficits of 20-50mm by this time next week.
Sunshine values over the last seven days have been near average or above average.
The southeast recorded the most sunshine with 65.7 hours – nearly twice the average.
Around half the amount of sunshine hours were recorded near western coasts of Connacht but this still catered for 80% the average for those areas.
In the coming week, sunshine amounts will likely be below average in most areas, though there will be some extended sunny periods too, most notably Monday and Tuesday.
Source: Met Éireann.