New Zealand weather expert predicts a red hot Irish summer

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Here's some good news to start the working year with: we're set for a great summer, according to new Zealand weather prediction expert Ken Ring.

The Irish Independent carries details of Ring's annual predictions for Ireland this morning, which extend all the way to the summer.

The weather guru is predicting a wet spring with the inclement rain of December expected to continue for the first three months of this year.

But he is forecasting that there could be a heat wave reminiscent of the Mediterranean-style temperatures of 1995 with three largely dry months.

In July, he says temperatures will reach a tropical 30 degrees with possibly drought conditions expected in August followed by a balmy September.

– Weather guru Ken Ring says we're in for a summer scorcher, Irish Independent

The predictions mean that the best time to plan holidays in Ireland are the first two weeks of July or the last two in August.

Mr Ring is the author of The Ireland Weather Almanac, a 450-page tome which offers long-range forecasting for all of 2013.

Met Éireann, the national weather forecaster, maintains that such long-range predictions are unreliable. 

When Ennis Town Council passed a motion calling for a public holiday to be decided on by Met Éireann, a spokesperson said they couldn't guarantee the weather in advance for any particular day.

'It is a one-stop shop for weather predictions over the whole of 2013 for the whole country, and tables county by county,' according to the description on Ring's website. 'The moon's influence on weather is explained. For planning ahead it is the farmers' aid.'