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The traditional Irish summer will continue its unpredictable delights over the coming days, with a little bit of everything, including hazy sunshine at times giving way to rain and showers.
Met Éireann said Friday would be fresh and quite breezy and mostly cloudy over Ulster and Leinster, with some rain in places, but drying out by afternoon.
There will be a few showers elsewhere, but it will remain mostly dry, with occasional sunny spells. The sunshine will break through more widely later.
Friday’s top temperatures will be between 14 and 18 degrees, with the blustery northwesterly winds easing by evening.
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It will be quite cool on Friday night with clear spells for a time but increasing cloud will bring some patches of drizzle and light rain to Atlantic coastal counties later in the night, Met Éireann said.
There will be some bright spells in eastern areas at first on Saturday, with a little hazy sunshine.
Cloudy, misty weather, with some rain, already in western areas, will extend countrywide by early afternoon. It will clear in western and north-western areas later.
The national meteorological service said the general outlook would be changeable, but it would be milder and less windy than of late.
Sunday will be mainly dry, with a mixture of cloud and sunny spells and some scattered showers.
Next week
Monday will bring more misty and cloudy conditions with patches of drizzle here and there, but some dry and bright spells also and sun breaking through in places. Temperatures will reach highs of 16 to 19 degrees, or up to 21 decrees in sunshine.
It will be misty overnight on Monday with rain becoming widespread.
Met Éireann said current indications were that weather on Tuesday and Wednesday would remain changeable.
What's on?
Events this weekend include the Skerries 100 road race on Friday and Saturday. There ill be road closures in place in Lusk, Skerries and Loughshinny in north Dublin.
The Irish Derby Festival takes place at the Curragh Racecourse until Sunday.
Friday’s first race is at 5.45pm and the last is at 8.55pm.
On Saturday, the first race is at 2pm and the last at 6pm. Sunday’s first race is at 1.45pm and the last runners are off at 5.25pm.
In Cork, The Coronas are Live at the Marquee on Friday night and extra traffic should be expected in the docklands area.
The Irish Youth Dance Festival opens on Saturday at the Pavilion Theatre in Dún Laoghaire and continues for the month of July.
As part of a special promotion, children may travel free on all public transport services covered by the Leap Card from Monday July 3rd to Sunday July 16th.
Minister for Transport Shane Ross and Anne Graham, chief executive of the National Transport Authority announced on Friday that free travel would automatically apply to any holder of a Child Leap Card when the card is presented.
The card covers all Dublin Bus scheduled services (excluding Airlink), all Luas services, all Dart services and all commuter rail services in Dublin’s short-hop zone.
Bus Éireann services where Leap Card validators are available are also covered.
Ms Graham noted the promotion also applied to Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford.
A limited stock of free Child Leap Cards is available from Dublin Bus head office in O’Connell Street, Connolly, Heuston and Pearse train stations and bus stations in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford.