TEMPERATURES have seen a significant drop this week as a “biting windchill” hits this morning.
Met Eireann has confirmed that the days leading up to St Patrick’s Day will be bitterly cold and frosty.
While much of the country will be waking up to dry and sunny spells, there is a cold air mass moving over Ireland and bringing sub zero temperatures overnight.
Alan O’Reilly Carlow Weather said this morning has started with a “biting windchill” as some parts of the country saw temperatures dip as low as -2C.
O’Reilly said: “A chilly morning with temperatures ranging from -2C to 6C but dry with some nice early bright spells.
“A cold night a frosty start to Thursday for many with a biting windchill.
“Mainly dry with sunny spells before cloud increases later in day and showers push down from the Northwest for Thursday night.”
Sunny spells and settled weather appears to be here to stay for the rest of the week, with only a limited amount of showers.
However a “cool arctic” airmass means the upcoming days will remain significantly chillier than last weekend.
Met Eireann’s Rebecca Cantwell said: “Our weather is going to stay cold but fairly settled for the rest of the week and into the bank holiday weekend.
“High pressures hanging around feeding in cool arctic air over us and so we can expect that by day temperatures will get past a max of 9C or 10C and will drop close to or below freezing by night.
“And while there will be generally a lot of dry weather around there will be some showers at times but any amounts that will fall will be minimal.”
TODAY’S OUTLOOK
Today will be begin with bright spells and dry conditions, however cloud is set to move over the country bring periods of rain in some parts.
Rebecca said: “So today we’re starting off cold, bright and mainly dry. We will see it get a bit cloudier through the day with some showers moving in mainly to the north and west.
“It’ll be another pleasant enough day with highs of 6C to 10C and light to moderate northerly or variable winds.
“It’s going to be cold again tonight with clear spells and isolated showers at first returning cloudier from the north west as a band of showers move in over Ulster, Connacht and western Munster later.
“Frost will form in some areas as temperatures fall to between -1C and 4C tonight in light and variable winds.”
REST OF THE WEEK
Tomorrow will see scattered showers to begin but as they move to the east, sunny spells will start to emerge.
She continued: “Friday will start off generally cloudy with scattered showers moving south eastwards across the country as sunnier conditions follow the clearance from the north west.
“The showers will become confined to Munster and South Leinster in the afternoon and it’ll become drier as the day goes on with good spells of sunshine developing later and highs of 7C to 10C for Friday.”
The Bank Holiday weekend will see high pressure bands hitting, bringing a few more showers to the Emerald Isle for St Patrick’s Day.
Rebecca said: “St Patrick’s weekend will then start with high pressure sitting directly over us but this will slowly drift away eastwards by Monday, St Patrick’s Day.
“And so the best of the weekend’s weather will come early Saturday before it becomes increasingly cloudier with a greater number of showers around come Monday.
“So it’ll be sunny at first Saturday with just a few isolated showers, then Sunday we’ll see an increase in cloud and a few further light showers and by Monday we’re in for a rather cloudy day overall with just light scattered showers, all in highs of 7C to 10C.”
