Sunny skies one minute and then the hailstones came flying down the next. Ah the Irish weather, the joy, the surprises the occasional chance remarks. The shades with wipers. The umbrella in the beer garden. There is another soft weekend in store for us, thank god.
Met Éireann have a dry and bright Saturday morning promised, followed by increasing cloud. Sheets of rain will spread across southwestern areas in the late morning and to the rest of the country during the afternoon and evening.
The rain will be heaviest in the southern half of the country.
Sunday and Monday will be cool and windy, with strong and gusty Westerly winds.
So you thought summer had arrived? Well you can think again. This weekends’ lucky dip will be just that. There will be a mixture of sunny spells and showers, some of the showers heavy, with the possibility of hail and thunder and they could even turn a bit wintry at times.
As we write the hailstones have gone, and the sun has come back out to play.
Traffic hotspots to look out for include the approaches to and from Dundrum Village. AA Roadwatch says there are restrictions at Upper Kilmacud Road and Taney Cross. Motorists should expect at least a 15-minute delay, throughout the day to get through Dundrum. The good news (depending on your perspective) is that the new Ballinteer Road overbridge in Dundrum will be opened to traffic tomorrow.
Traffic lights are out on the North Avenue / Fosters Avenue.
A military convoy of about 45 trucks is now travelling through Kilkenny on its way to both Kilworth Camp in Cork and the barracks in Limerick city. From Clonmel the convoy will split into two groups - about 20 trucks will travel to the Barracks in Limerick city and the others will go to the Kilworth Camp between Fermoy and Mitchelstown. They are traveling at about 30 mph so serious delays can be expected.
A charity walk is taking place from Dublin to Galway and continues tomorrow on the N6 from Craughwell to Galway from 7.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. There will be about ten people on the walk at any given time, accompanied by 3 escort cars. The walk will take place on the hard shoulder of the N6.
There are no delays to trains on intercity, suburban and DART services. Irish Ferries and Stena Line services are also running to schedule and there are no major delays at Dublin, Cork or Shannon Airports.