Northern Ireland basked in its warmest June since 1846, it has been found.

This included a day which saw the hottest temperatures ever recorded by the Armagh Observatory since it started taking daily measurements in 1795.

The warmest two days of the month were June 27 and 28, when temperatures reached 30.4C and 30.2C respectively.

Armagh Observatory said 30.4C is the hottest day since their records began 223 years ago.

Overall, June 2018 was recorded as much warmer than average, drier than average and with higher than average number of hours of strong sunshine.

“With a mean monthly temperature of 16.16C (61.1 Fahrenheit), this was the warmest June at Armagh for 172 years – that is, since June 1846 – and the third-warmest June recorded at Armagh since daily measurements of temperature at the Observatory began around 1795,” the observatory said.

“This was the driest June at Armagh for three years, that is, since June 2015, which recorded 29.45mm of rainfall.

“The mean temperature was nearly 16.2C, some 2.8C warmer than the long-term (1796-2010) average June temperature at Armagh and 2.3C warmer than the most recent (1981-2010) 30-year average. This was the third-warmest June on record at Armagh, that is, since 1795.”

The five warmest Junes recorded at Armagh are now June 1846 (16.9C), June 1826 (16.4C), June 2018 (16.2C), June 1887 (15.9C) and June 1970 (15.8C).

Weather observers recorded a total of 180.5 hours of strong sunshine.

“This is nearly 4% more than the long-term (1881-2010) average number of hours of strong June sunshine at Armagh, and approximately 25% more than the most recent (1981–2010) 30-year June average,” the Observatory said. 

“This was the sunniest June at Armagh for three years, that is, since June 2015, which had 183 hours of strong sunshine. The sunniest day was June 29, with 14.7 hours of strong sunshine.”

Meanwhile, the Met Office said the warm weather is set to continue this week.

The maximum temperature forecast for Wednesday in Northern Ireland is 25C, and with a high pressure system remaining in place, the weather is set to stay dry and settled this week.

A hose pipe ban remains in place in Northern Ireland.