Winter has made an unwelcome return. Many parts of the country will experience bitterly cold weather over the next two days, with sleet, snow and high winds, the Meteorological Service has said.
Snow and sleet was forecast overnight for most of the country, with predictions of drifting snow in some areas and on high ground, as well as frost in most areas, making road conditions dangerous.
While farmers are having to cope with conditions which have left more than 1,500 acres of last year's potato crop unharvested, the Met Service said that we were experiencing "typical March weather".
A spokesman said that the high winds which forced the cancellation of the giant "Skyfest" fireworks display in Dublin would continue today and into tomorrow. The winds yesterday also forced the cancellation of ferry services between Dún Laoghaire and Dublin and Holyhead.
"March is living up to its reputation that it comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb," the Met Service spokesman said. "However, we should remember that the coldest temperatures recorded last year came in early March. We expect the weather to improve by Wednesday."
It was likely that most areas would experience falls of snow or sleet due to the drop in temperatures to below freezing and as a result of the very high winds, especially in the north and north-west.
Teagasc, the agriculture and food development authority, reported last week that 400 to 500 hectares of the 2006 potato crop were still unharvested.
"There is little or no damage from frost in very late harvested Rooster, but isolated fields of unharvested Kerrs Pink have deteriorated in quality over the winter months," the authority's first crop report of the year stated.
The main difficulty facing farmers is that some of them have not been able to plant this year's early-season crop.
The Teagasc report said that virtually no spring cereals had been sown so far. It pointed out that it was now too late to plant some of the spring varieties.
The president of the Irish Farmers' Association, Pádraig Walshe, said that the sowing of crops was two to three weeks behind schedule because of the poor ground conditions.
"On farms with heavier soil there is land that has not even been ploughed yet. Farmers would expect to have planted by now, and the prospects for the coming week are not good. Later sowings will have an impact on yields," he said.