Met Éireann issues snow and ice warning

Irish weather is expected to turn icy in coming days with snow and sleet across the country.

The weather is due to turn “bitterly cold with biting winds” from tomrrow with daytime temperatures dropping to just 2 degrees in parts of the country.

Met Éireann has issued a status yellow warning with up to 3 cm of snow expected at lower levels.

The snow warning will start at 6am tomorrow and remain in place until 11pm on Thursday.

Snow showers and sleet will be most frequent over hills and mountains in the west and north of the country. The status yellow weather alert is the lowest of the three categories of warning.

The forecaster has also issued a status yellow wind warning with southwest to west winds reaching gusts of between 90 and 110 km/h.

These winds will be strongest on coastal areas in the west and northwest.

“It will largely be the north and the west that will bear the brunt of the weather,” said forecaster David Rodgers, adding that the strong winds may blow the wintery showers across the country to parts of the midlands and eastern areas.

“The daytime temps will stay in low single figures after tomorrow for several days and then they’ll start to creep back up again early next week.”

Despite the low temperatures, Met Éireann is expecting “decent amounts of sunshine” in the south and the east of the country on Wednesday.

Temperatures are expected to drop well below freezing on Wednesday night with a build-up of snow and ice, particularly in the north and the west of the country.

Motorists are urged to take extreme caution on the roads with frost and ice overnight leading to hazardous driving conditions.

Snowfall is expected to continue into Thursday but will turn to rain on Friday in coastal counties in the west and north.

The cold weather will continue into the weekend with snowfall in exposed northern and western areas and severe frost and icy roads.