IRELAND has been told to “wrap up” this St Patrick’s Day as forecasts show windchill making conditions “feel cold” over the next few hours.
Hundreds of thousands of people expected to turn out for parades across the country today look likely to stay mostly dry though, with Met Eireann forecasting very little rain over the next few hours.
Temperatures look set to be higher in the west of the country today[/caption]
There will be some showers this afternoon[/caption]
However, the weather chiefs warned that Munster and south Leinster look set to be the worst-hit areas by occasional light showers of rain.
Met Eireann said: “Mostly dry and cloudy today, St. Patrick’s Day, with just well scattered light showers around, mainly in Munster and south Leinster, and just occasional sunny spells.
“Feeling cool in light to moderate east to southeast winds and with highest temperatures of 7C to 10C.”
Alan O’Reilly from Carlow Weather said that it is a “cool and cloudy but dry start to St Patrick’s Day“.
He added: “It will feel cool today so wrap [up] and enjoy the day.”
The weather boffin also confirmed that the light showers of rain are likely to be “passing showers”, adding: “There will be generally a lot of cloud around so it will feel cold.
“If we look at the windchill forecast you can see it is quite cold.
“That’s because it’s going to be pretty breezy as well so you do want to wrap up tomorrow, especially if you’re heading to a parade and you’re going to be standing around because it will feel cold.”
Met Eireann confirmed that conditions tonight will remain largely the same.
It said: “Largely dry tonight and mostly cloudy with just limited clear spells and isolated light showers.
“Lowest temperatures of 1C to 5C in light to moderate easterly breezes.”
MORE DAYLIGHT
Ireland is also finally set to see more daylight this week as today marks the Spring equilux.
The is when day and night are equal and occurs a few days before the spring equinox, which is when the length of day and night are only nearly equal.
O’Reilly said: “Spring equilux [today] which means that after [today] the days are longer than the nights. Of course this means daylight hours.”
SUB-ZERO SWITCH
Met Eireann said high pressure will dominate the start of the rest of this week with largely dry conditions.
The weather bosses said temperatures will increase midweek before more unsettled conditions develop towards the weekend.
And they warned that temperatures will plunge below zero tomorrow night.
Looking towards Tuesday night, Met Eireann said: “Dry, cold and mostly clear.
“Some frost expected with lowest temperatures of -1C to 4C, coldest in Ulster, in light easterly breezes. A few mist and fog patches may also develop.”
