Hail and snow fell in Ireland today, bringing a wintery feel to spring but Met Éireann said this sort of weather isn’t particularly unusual.
The forecast on Wednesday promised sunny spells and scattered showers with the showers most frequent in the east.
Parts of Dublin also experienced blustery conditions along with hail and snow.
“It’s on the cold side of what can happen in April,” said Mét Éireann meteorologist Harm Luijkx, adding that the cold is coming down from the north. “That’s why we’re seeing these hail and sleet showers.”
But he said that although these types of showers are cold for this time of year, they are not “totally unknown”.
Highest temperatures today are forecast to be 8 to 10 degrees in fresh northwesterly winds but most of the showers will die away this evening.
After a dry and cold night, with temperatues reaching about 3 degrees, tomorrow’s conditions will be similiar to today’s.
Outbreaks of showery rain will gradually develop and spread southwards early tomorrow morning, breaking up in to sunny spells and widespread showers for the afternoon, Met Éireann said. It will become drier in the evening with top temperatures of about 10 degrees.
The weather is expected to continue like this into the weekend with cold and blustery conditions along with scattered showers forecast for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Britain has been experiencing similar conditions with the UK Met Office saying it was a myth that temperatures have to be below zero for it to snow.
Germany, however, has been experiencing particularly harsh conditions with a low pressure system bringing heavy snowfalls in the centre of the country.
