Status yellow weather warnings will come into place for parts of the country on Thursday night, with the national forecaster warning of the potential for “localised flooding”.
Met Éireann has issued a yellow rain warning for Cavan, Donegal, Longford and all of Connacht from 10pm on Thursday until 8am on Friday.
A separate yellow wind warning will be in place for Dublin, Wexford, Wicklow, Galway, Kerry, Waterford from 10pm on Thursday until 7am on Friday.
“South to southwest winds will be very strong and gusty at times, especially near coasts and on high ground,” the warning states.
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Overall, Friday morning will be wet, with fresh to strong and very gusty southwesterly winds easing.
There will be widespread outbreaks of rain at first with heavy falls and localised flooding in places.
It will turn drier and brighter from the west during the morning and early afternoon. However, further showers will return to western areas later in the day, with the breeze picking up again. Highest temperatures will be between seven and 10 degrees.
There will be showery outbreaks of rain on Friday night that will extend from southwest during the night.
It will be driest and coldest in the north and west, with lowest temperatures of 0 to 4 degrees, with frost and patches of fog developing.
However, temperatures will be milder elsewhere, reaching lows of 4-7 degrees.
New Year’s Eve will see further showery outbreaks of rain that will be mostly widespread at first. Dry periods will develop through the day, especially from midafternoon.
Highest temperatures will be 5 to 9 degrees generally, cooler though in parts of the north, with light to moderate westerly breezes.
Saturday night will be very cold, especially over the northern half of the country, where temperatures of between -4 and 1 degrees are forecast. Frost and icy stretches are also expected to develop widely overnight.
It will be largely dry for much of the night, although there will be a few showers with falls of sleet possible.
Met Éireann said the weather on New Year’s Day has a good deal of uncertainty but current indications suggest that rain in the southwest will gradually extend across the country, falling as sleet in places with snow on high ground.
