Met Éireann has warned that temperatures will dip as low as 0 degrees later in the week with some patches of frost, ice, sleet and snow.
As low pressure dominates across the country, spells of rain, low temperatures and windy weather can be expected on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Met Éireann has issued a yellow wind warning for counties Donegal, Galway and Mayo valid from 6pm on Tuesday to 5am on Wednesday.
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Strong and gusty southwesterly winds, especially in coastal areas are expected. Potential impacts include difficult travelling conditions, debris and some fallen branches or trees.
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Tuesday is expected to remain generally cloudy with outbreaks of rain and drizzle. It will become breezy as moderate to fresh south or southwest winds develop. Highest temperatures of 9 to 13 degrees.
Tuesday evening will remain dry with some patches of mist overnight and temperatures falling to 3 degrees.
The forecaster says that Wednesday will be dry and bright with spells of sunshine and scattered showers along Atlantic coastal counties.
Wednesday night will be windy and persistent rain will develop in the northwest in the morning. Lowest temperatures of 5 to 8 degrees.
Thursday is also forecasted to be wet and windy with outbreaks of rain, turning heavy at times. Highest temperatures of 8 to 12 degrees.
Frost and ice will form on Thursday night as temperatures drop to 0 to 4 degrees. It will be generally cloudy with rain clearing early on. It will turn colder and showers feeding in from the west may fall as sleet or snow in places.
Friday will be cool and breezy with sunny spells and scattered showers which may fall as sleet and possibly snow at times. Highest temperatures of 5 to 8 degrees.
Saturday will likely be duller and milder, with cloud and rain extending eastward across the country. Highest temperatures of 8 to 11 degrees.
Meanwhile, the strategic lead in the European Centre with the Copernicus Climate Change Service, Samantha Burgess has said that climate change was responsible for the wettest February in years.
“A more southerly jet stream and then a number of atmospheric rivers coming across the Atlantic really drove those storm tracks leading to that record amount of rainfall in many locations,” she told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland.
Parts of the southeast of Ireland, France and the Iberian Peninsula were also heavily hit, she added. There were a number of factors which led to the heavy rainfall – including the fact that a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture so it rains more intensely and because the polar jet has moved further south.
It was not unusual to have storms in February, but there had been seven or eight in a row and that frequency of storms, with record amounts of precipitation meant that the ground was “super saturated” and so could not absorb the rainfall, she explained.
Temperatures had fluctuated throughout February, she said. It had been one of the coldest Februarys in the past 14 years for Europe with much colder averages in Scandinavia – up to three to five degrees much colder than average.
