Irish temperatures to plummet as big freeze set to make a return

Ireland was battered by Storm Bert over the weekend, with intense gusts and heavy showers from the second named storm of the season leaving 60,000 customers without power.

Despite a Met Eireann warning expiring on Monday morning in the wake of the storm, the poor weather is showing no signs of improving over the coming days.

Monday will bring a mix of sunshine and scattered showers, some heavy, with a slight chance of hail and a few isolated thunderstorms. The showers will be more frequent in the north, west and southwest, but isolated further east.

"Moderate to fresh and occasionally gusty southwest to west winds, strong to near gale force and gusty for a time in the north and northwest, will ease through the day as Storm Bert moves away, becoming mainly light to moderate by evening. Highest afternoon temperatures of 7 to 10C.

Showers will become mostly confined to coastal counties of the west and north tonight and will gradually become more isolated, with long clear spells developing. Frost and some icy patches will develop as temperatures fall to between -2 to +2C in light to moderate southwest or variable breezes.

A few isolated mist and fog patches will develop," a Met Eireann spokesperson said.

Tuesday will be dry and sunny for most parts of the country, but there’ll still be some showers, with these most likely in coastal parts of the north, west and south. Highest temperatures of 5 to 9C in light variable breezes.

With temperatures dropping to -3C, Tuesday night will bring showery rain in the southeast and east, as well as a few coastal showers in the north. Fog or freezing fog is likely to become fairly widespread too,

Looking ahead to Wednesday, the Met Eireann spokesperson said: "Areas of mist and fog will be slow to clear through Wednesday and may linger all day in some parts of the Midlands.

"There’ll be a little showery rain in the east and southeast in the morning, with a little sleet over the Wicklow mountains, and with a few isolated showers too near the north and northwest coast, otherwise it will be a largely dry day with some spells of sunshine. A chilly day with the highest temperatures of 4 to 8C, colder where fog lingers, in mostly light northerly or variable breezes.

"Wednesday night will be another dry and cold night with frost and icy patches developing. Mist and fog will thicken early in the night and become fairly widespread for a time, but will start to clear later in the night, as light winds increase to moderate easterly and freshen in the southwest towards morning. Lowest temperatures of -3 to +1C."

With the frost, mist and fog clearing on Thursday morning, it’ll be dry in most areas with some sunshine, especially further to the north and east. However, it’ll become mostly cloudy in the morning the south and west, with some rain and drizzle, mainly in the southwest.

Things will become breezy as the day progresses, with some further scattered outbreaks of rain and drizzle in the southwest and south. Highest temperatures of 5C in the north to 12C with southeasterly winds increasing mostly fresh and gusty, stronger in some coastal parts.

Following a cloudy and breezy night on Thursday, where temperatures will be slightly warmer than the previous night’s at 4C, Friday will bring more of the same weather-wise.

"While there’s uncertainty at this lead time for next weekend, it looks like it’ll continue rather cloudy, mild and breezy on Saturday with some scattered outbreaks of mostly light rain and drizzle, especially in southern areas, with some mist and hill fog there too, but with good dry spells elsewhere.

"By Sunday, there’s a lot of uncertainty, with the possibility of some heavy rain moving in from the west, but there’s also the chance that this may stay out in the Atlantic to lead to a mainly dry brighter day," the spokesperson added.

* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.