Met Éireann has issued an advisory warning of “very cold” weather this week, with an Arctic air mass forecast to set in over Ireland.
It said “sharp to severe frosts and icy stretches on roads” would occur in the second half of the week, in addition to showers of hail, sleet and snow.
Monday will bring “mainly dry conditions” to the north and northwest with sunny spells, but it will turn “much colder” from midweek onwards, as the winds become northerly. Plenty of dry weather is expected, though there are likely to be wintry showers at times, especially in northern and northwestern areas.
Tuesday will be “dry in most areas” with just a few isolated showers. The highest temperatures will be between 4 to 7 degrees, and it will become “very cold” on Tuesday night with temperatures expected to fall between 0 and minus 4 degrees.
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Temperatures will remain chilly on Wednesday at just 2 to 6 degrees, though it will stay dry in most areas. Some scattered showers will affect northern and northwestern coastal areas and these will “edge further” inland over Ulster and Connacht during the evening.
It will become “bitterly cold” overnight, with temperatures below freezing countrywide, Met Éireann forecasts. Current indications are that it will “stay very cold through the remainder of the week and next weekend too”.