A warning for forest fires has been upgraded to red due to the dry conditions and high temperatures.
The Department of Agriculture says the alert will remain in place until 12pm on Friday – with people advised not to light barbeques outside designated areas and to take care when disposing of cigarettes.
It comes as Irish water says restrictions will become unavoidable if the heatwave continues. Kilkenny is one of a number of areas being monitored by the Drought management team.
There’s been restrictions on the water supply already locally in the Bennettsbridge area along with Knocktopher and Ballyhale and you’re being urged to conserve water to prevent any further disruption. Today people in Piltown & Fiddown are asked to conserve water as much as possible to prevent outages over coming days.
A yellow temperature warning remains in place – with highs of 30 degrees expected this week.
Kate Gannon from Irish Water is appealing to people to conserve supplies.
