Cold snap is on the way from Wednesday evening

The country is set for a cold snap from tomorrow evening, with frost, icy roads, and temperatures of –3 degrees Celsius on the way, according to Met Éireann.

The national weather forecaster said tomorrow will be cold, before the weather clears up through Thursday and Friday.

On St Stephen’s evening and over St Stephen’s night the weather will be mostly dry, with some wintry showers of rain in the west and north of the country. The lowest temperature is set to be between –2 and 2 degrees.

In general, Wednesday will be cold and breezy, with scattered showers. The weather will get worse from Wednesday evening, with temperatures dropping and ice and fog forecast.

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On Thursday, top temperatures will range from 2 to 6 degrees. Met Éireann said most parts of the country will be in for dry weather, with some sunny or bright spells. Some counties in the west and southwest of the country are due to see rain and sleet through the day.

Rain is forecast for most of the country overnight on Thursday, with temperatures dropping to below 0 degrees, particularly in Leinster and Ulster.

Significant decline

A spokesman for the Peter McVerry Trust said the homeless charity had "seen a significant decline" in the number of rough sleepers out on the streets in recent weeks.

The spokesman said the reduction was due to the emergency cold weather strategy rolled out by homeless charities and the Dublin Region Homeless Executive. The strategy included an additional 200 emergency beds for homeless adults sleeping rough in the Dublin region.

Members of the public are encouraged to log locations of people they see sleeping rough with the Peter McVerry Trust. The spokesman said this process had allowed the service to identify rough sleepers in outlying areas of Dublin such as Skerries and Portmarnock in recent weeks.

The cold snap is due to ease up later in the week.

Friday is set to be dry throughout most of the country, and the lowest temperatures should be about 4 degrees, according to Met Éireann.

The current outlook for the weekend is windy, with some sunny spells and small pockets of frost.