The best that can be said of the weather over the June Bank Holiday weekend is that it will be warmer than it has been over the past few days.
Apart from that, the outlook is for rain spreading across the country from tonight onwards. A spokeswoman from the Meteorological Service said temperatures will reach the high 'teens and 20C in some places.
By tonight heavy showers and bands of rain will start in southern parts of the country. By Sunday and Monday there will be more widespread showers, some heavy and thundery. More than 4,000 Garda checkpoints will be set up over the weekend to reduce deaths on the roads.
Over half a million people will be travelling through airports, ports and on roads and rail. The biggest increases in travel when compared to the same weekend last year are on the airlines. Aer Rianta figures show that over 247,000 passengers will pass through Dublin, Cork and Shannon, starting from last Thursday to this Monday.
In Cork, over 25,000 passengers are expected at the airport, and at Shannon Airport 30,000 will travel to destinations in the UK, Europe and the US. Aer Lingus expects to carry over 118,000 passengers. Ryanair will fly over 100,000 passengers which represents a 20 per cent increase on the same weekend last year. The sea ports will be busy with 26,500 passengers expected on Irish Ferries' Dublin and Rosslare routes to Britain and 4,500 on the route to France. Stena Line state that 56,000 will travel on their Dun Laoghaire/Holyhead routes and through Rosslare. The Swansea-Cork Line will carry 3,500 passengers over the weekend.
Bus Eireann expects up to 100,000 passengers on the Expressway and provincial bus services. On Monday, services will generally operate as on Sundays, with a number of alterations and extra evening services to cater for people returning to main centres.
Over 100,000 are expected to travel by rail over the weekend. Today a small number of extra trains will be put on and on Sunday additional trains will be put on to cater for passengers going to the Munster Football Final.
Normal DART services will run over the weekend but a special timetable will apply on Monday similar to Sunday.