After the hottest weather spell in over a decade, everyone from astrologers to those who believe in St Swithin's Day have tried to guess what sort of weather August and September will bring.

The immediate prognosis isn't good, according to David Rodgers of Met Eireann.

"All parts of the country will have a spell of rain today, " he said. The rain will start in the northwest and move in a southeasterly direction but it will have cleared by the evening.

"It will be warm and humid on Monday morning and fresher in the evening but it should remain dry for the day.

Tuesday will be largely dry with rain coming in from the west during the second half of the day and the general outlook is for fresher, breezier conditions with mixed amounts of cloud and sunshine."

On a more unconventional note, Sunday Tribune astrologer Margaret Neylon said: "As St Swithin's Day (15 July) was bright and sunny, the weather should stay similar for the next 40 days, which takes us to the end of August."

Neylon believes that, astrologically, the full moon on Wednesday will bring windy but dry weather for the next two weeks. She added: "The next New Moon is 23 August, in the Fire Sign of Leo, so weather conditions should be building up from dry and hot to wet and stormy around 7 September."

Neylon also claims that the Scarlet Pimpernel flower is a good weather indicator. She says that when the flowers are open it means dry weather is in store while the closure of the flowers means rain.

Ken Ring, a long-range weather forecaster from Auckland, New Zealand, who studies the moon, is mostly optimistic about the chances of good weather over the next few weeks.

"The wet system which is around today should be followed by a hot spell around 13 to 17 August. There will be a long dry spell throughout the third week and this will be broken by a low pressure system that will bring rain at the end of the month."

For September he predicts a "hot spell in the first week of the month that will give Ireland long fine spells, before showers start around the beginning of the second week, and again in the last week of the month".

Bird movements are one of the most reliable indicators for weather forecasting. However, Dermot McCabe of Birdwatch Ireland said: "As it is mid-season it is hard to see what the weather will be like in the coming weeks. We are coming into an exciting time as the migration season starts but we have not noticed too much out of the ordinary at the minute."