WEATHER at this year’s National Ploughing Championship will be the polar opposite of last year with temperatures of up to 22C expected during three days of sunshine.

According to Met Éireann, all three days of this year’s championships will be warm and dry, with little or no wind and rain.

Tuesdays will see temperatures in the very high teens, and from Wednesday on, the mercury could reach as high as 22C. Met Éireann forecaster Vincent O’Shea said “essentially the weather will be more or less dry and settled for the whole event”.

“We would be very confident that all three days would be completely dry. All three days will be very similar and what will characterise them is light winds, variable cloud and some sunshine on each of the days.

“I would expect sunshine on all of the days – Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday – with the best of the sunshine on the last two days, Thursday especially.

“There will be warm sunny spells and temperatures will be in the high teens for most of the time during daylight hours. They will peak at 20C or even 22C during the afternoons.”

Despite cool overnight temperatures and the likelihood of fog and mist in the mornings, this will subside as temperatures of 18C to 22C prevail, for what promises to be a blistering National Ploughing Championships.

“Winds will be light or variable, with very little and maybe even no winds at all,” Mr O’Shea said.

“Now, there will be some mist in the mornings alright. and maybe some shallow fog patches tomorrow morning, but they should clear off.

“I will emphasise that it should be dry for the three days.”

The weather predicted for this year’s event is in complete contrast to that of last year.

READ MORE Picking up the pieces as Storm Ali brings devastation to Ploughing site

Amid Storm Ali last year, organisers of the event staged at Tullamore were forced to cancel the biggest day of the three-day event and incur additional costs by putting on an extra day on the Friday.

The impact of Storm Ali last year sent pre-tax losses soaring to almost €500,000 at the company which operates the National Ploughing Championships.

New accounts filed by The National Ploughing Association of Ireland Company Ltd show the full affect of Storm Ali as pre-tax losses at the company increased almost ninefold from €55,865 to €494,370 in the 12 months to the end of January 31, 2019.

The National Ploughing firm incurred the sharp rise in losses after revenues decreased by 12pc from €5.6m to €4.97m.

Present indications suggest that the weather will turn more unsettled this weekend and into next week.

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