Interest in the Irish Skies

Hi all,

This is a new venture for me to provide you with informative forecasts on what’s happening in the Ireland skies. For a while I’ve been doing personalised forecasts directly to you or through my Instagram stories on auroras, sunrises, sunsets etc. I’ve been doing these out of pure passion and my background knowledge in meteorology built up over the years.

To make things easier, I am planning to update this blog post on any interest in our skies that I can see happening. These might be of use to you, or not, as a photographer or in general just a lover of the skies. It’s impossible for me to anticipate every single beautiful moment such as a colourful sunset but I will try my best to alert you on what’s happening. Please pin or bookmark this blog post as this is my one source I will be regularly using to update you. I will continue to post the occasional Instagram story.

If you would like to support this venture, you can make a donation via here. These donations will be used to fund camera gear so that I can get better photos and videos of these same moments that I share with you to go out and enjoy.

— Update Thursday 21st May 2026 —

It’s been a poor week for the skies with not much interest, just that awful low level stratus that doesn’t light up or doesn’t produce a dramatic enough scene. The outlook doesn’t look terribly much more interesting but I have a few things to mention.

Friday evening there could be sunset colour almost anywhere in Ireland with the midlands probably placed best in terms of clearance to cloud cover ratio. The east will have the most amount of cloud cover so could be the most dramatic provided there is sufficient clearance.

A warm spell is coming with southeasterly winds probable by Monday and Tuesday next week. Southeasterly winds give the threat of sea fog on south and east coastlines, beware beachgoers that your day could suddenly turn ugly as humidity rises over the relatively cool sea. The southeasterly will feed in pollutants which could make the sunrises and sunsets hazier and muted, ideal for PhotoPills type shots.

Additional thanks very much to my supporters Louise (@kellermurray), Peter Downey and Joseph McNeill for generously donating. It’s a great feeling to know that you appreciate this content and the effort I put in to giving back to my community.

Clearer skies coming from the west on Friday evening with cloud overhead and to the east is a recipe for colourful sunset potential. This could be almost anywhere across Ireland, the east will have the most amount of cloud.

— Update Saturday 16th May 2026 —

Tomorrow Sunday 17th May will be a wet day with plenty of showers merging into longer spells of rain from the west. Skies could well be dramatic with shelf cloud from approaching downpours and thunder mixed in. At first there could also be a chance of a colourful sunrise as the cloud type looks mainly mid-level or high and not much low cloud forecast. Anywhere has this chance, clearest skies up north means these areas have the lowest chance due to insufficient cloud cover. Don’t forget about the chance for rainbows too at any time of day when you get heavy enough showers but with sun appearing through a break in the cloud, at least 3 hours either side of noon.

An even higher chance for a colourful sky before sunrise on Monday morning as a warm front heads northeastward. Highest chance looks to be in a line stretching from Mayo down to Wexford. The far southwest like Kerry probably too much cloud. Conversely the north and east will likely be too clear.

ICON model forecast for cloud cover at 6am on Sunday 17th May.

ICON model forecast for cloud cover at 6am on Monday 18th May. Very distinct warm front pushing northeastward = primed for fiery sky colours.

— Update Tuesday 12th May 2026 —

A showery day tomorrow Wednesday will give the chances for rainbows to occur across Ireland. Remember that the best time to catch a rainbow is at least 3 hours either side of noon because when the sun is highest in the sky, any rainbows will be very low on the horizon so unless you have elevation or a drone view, you will struggle to see them. Rainbows occurring at sunrise and sunset will also be more vivid and vibrant. Intensity of rainbows cannot be forecast, you just need to chance your luck by looking at the rainfall radar such as on Met.ie and spot a shower approaching the location then wait to see if the magic will happen after the sun comes out following the downpour. These showers can occur anywhere in the country but the highest chance will be for northern and northwestern counties. Showers coinciding with sunset can give a colourful sky with a clear western horizon.

Double rainbow during a sunset downpour in July 2020

There is the chance of a colourful sky for quite a wide region early on Saturday morning, 16th May.

Cloud coverage forecast for Ireland at 4am on Saturday 16th May 2026. Yellow = clear, grey = cloud. Cloud approaching from the west is often a teller for a colourful sunrise once the eastern horizon is clear-ish or the cloud type is favourable.