Warmest May night on record verified by Met Office

A new May temperature record for Northern Ireland has been officially verified by the Met Office following last month's UK heatwave.

The overnight temperature at Killowen in County Down did not fall below 15.9C on 28 May, making it the warmest night on record for the month.

That broke the previous record where temperatures did not fall below 15.6C, recorded at the same site, in May 2012.

The figure was first reported as provisional, but has now been confirmed through a '"stringent quality assurance process".

That includes checks of the weather station site and the equipment used to record the temperature.

Met Office officials also carried out a minute-by-minute analysis of the readings and compared them with nearby stations to ensure the figure was consistent with conditions on the day.

"Verifying temperature records is an important part of the process for inducting new figures into the record books," said Elizabeth Sykes, the Met Office's head of observations operations.

"While all weather data is subject to stringent national and international guidance and criteria, the extra verification steps for records helps us maintain our confidence and authority in the figures quoted."

The new May record came during an exceptional spell of late heat across the UK and Ireland.

Some individual weather stations also broke their heat records during the warm spell, including in Armagh.

It recorded a temperature of 26.3C on 25 May, surpassing its previous record of 26.2C recorded in May 1989.

The 104-year-old record for May in Northern Ireland is 28.3C, which was recorded in Lisburn on 31 May 1922.