Ireland is set for one of the wettest  months of May on record.

Some weather stations are recording rainfall levels six times higher than last year.

Met Éireann’s Dublin Airport monitoring station is almost 600pc above rainfall levels this month (57.1mm) compared to May 2020 (9.3mm) – with one third of the month still to go.

Rainfall at the station has been three times that of May 2018. The rainfall over the first 20 days of May has almost equalled the long-term average for the entire month (59.5mm), even with 10 days left.

Rainfall so far this month has already been greater than the total monthly rainfall for May in the three years from 2018-2020. However, long-suffering householders can take hope as Met Éireann said there are increasing indications that sunshine and settled weather will dominate the first two weeks of June.

This weekend will prove quite unsettled – with some areas enjoying spells of sunshine before showers spread nationwide, some of which will be heavy.

Met Éireann acknowledged that May has been a very damp month by traditional standards.

Ironically, April proved one of the driest months of recent times with just 23.9mm of rainfall compared to 2020 (46.8mm), 2019 (67.7mm) and 2018 (82.2mm).

But the good news is that Met Éireann’s long-term forecast is much more optimistic and summer-orientated.

“A much more settled picture is likely from May 28 to June 3, with a strong signal of high pressure likely to be the prevalent feature,” a spokesperson said.

“Temperatures look set to recover to close to the average for the end of May and beginning of June.

“Rainfall amounts will be below average and the main hazard in this set-up is the potential for dense fog at times. It will also prove a mainly settled picture for June 4-10 with high pressure likely to continue to dominate.”