COLD, frosty and cloudy is the outlook for this St Patrick’s day weekend as temperatures are set to remain low for the Bank Holiday.
Weather bosses have warned that sub-zero conditions are here to stay over the coming days.
Along with them, there will also be a slight shift in what we’ve seen during the week as clear and bright spells are being overturned by more cloud coverage.
Today is looking to start out cold with frost clearing early on and some sunny spells breaking through.
A Met Eireann forecaster said: “Well it’s a cold start to the Saturday morning, temperatures sub-zero fairly widely with a slight or even sharp frost out there to start out this morning.
“Now that frost will quickly clear with the Sun soon rising and in fact there will be dry sunny weather early on today fairly widely.
“That said though cloud cover will increase and it will produce a few light passing showers but they will tend to be the exception.
“Temperatures much like recent days coming in a very seasonal 7C to 10C and that comes with just slight northeast or variable breezes.”
OVERNIGHT TEMPS
Tonight is looking to be another extremely cold night, with frost and mist returning as sub-zero temperatures emerge.
She continued: “Now tonight will once again be a cold one with a slight possibly sharp frost setting in and again a few mist patches locally too.
“Overall though it will remain dry with a mix of cloud and clear spells with temperatures overnight dropping back -2C to 3C in a light easterly or variable breeze.”
TOMORROW’S OUTLOOK
Tomorrow will be a similar day with mostly dry weather and only some light showers to break up the cloud.
The forecaster said: “Sunday really very similar in many respects to today, overall a lot of dry weather with a mix of sunshine and cloudier spells producing some faint light showers but they will tend once again to be the exception with largely dry conditions in across the country.
“Temperatures may be a touch higher than today, values of 8C to 11C with best values for the west and north of Ireland.”
PADDY’S DAY SHIFT
As St Patrick’s rolls around on Monday, looks can be deceiving early on as sunny spells will quickly become more overcasts, with scattered showers breaking through.
She said: “For St Patrick’s Day at present it looks like it will begin dry and reasonably sunny for the western half of the country but unfortunately cloud will thicken and will become cloudy or even overcast for the day.
“Those cloudier skies will produce a few well scattered showers accompanied to by a somewhat brisk east to southeast breeze.
“Feeling a bit on the chilly side certainly for St Patrick’s Day but despite this not the worst day by any means with values once again coming in around 7C to 11C but feeling cool on account of that rather brisk breeze.”
REST OF THE WEEK
As we head into the remainder of the week, conditions appear to be continuing with rain continuing on Tuesday and Wednesday.
She said: “At that stage very similar conditions overall dry with light to moderate southeast breezes and temperatures coming in around 7C to 11C.
“A few faint showers once again on Tuesday but by and large not a dry weather.
“The focus of the showers on Tuesday will likely be in over the very southwest of Munster.
“Come Wednesday, temperature profile begins to increase to values a little above average for mid-march, a little bit damp and drizzly perhaps for the west and northwest of the country but overall a good deal of dry weather with a mix of cloud and some sunny spells.
“Temperatures for Wednesday set to come in around 10C to 14C maybe touching 15C in across the Midlands.”
Thursday and Friday are looking to stay mild with temperatures reaching new highs for this year, beating out the 17.7C recorded last week.
She said: “Thursday and Friday looks to be increasingly mild, in fact it will be very mild on Thursday.
“Temperature at the highest so far this year 17.7C recorded in Macehead earlier this month, that well could be that temperature could well be exceeded this coming Thursday with nice mild or very mild conditions occurring nationwide.”
