According to Met Éireann, the outlook for the week is for mainly cold conditions, albeit with a lot of dry weather. With the dry weather expected to last until Thursday, there will be below-average rainfall up until this then.

Monday will be mostly dry with some good sunshine appearing during the afternoon.

However, there will be some heavy showers in Ulster and north Connacht later on in the day and these will drift further south during the afternoon, becoming isolated and lighter as they do.

Monday night will turn cold, with icy stretches on untreated surfaces, as temperatures fall to between 0° and -4°.

Tuesday will be a cold, dry, bright day with good sunshine. However, some isolated showers may affect north-facing coasts at times.

Another bright cold day is expected on Wednesday, with only a few showers likely, mostly in northern and northwestern parts. Frost will set in quickly on Wednesday evening and will become severe overnight as temperatures fall to between -1°C and -4°C.

Frost, fog and icy patches will clear on Thursday morning to give way to a cold, mainly dry and bright day in midland and eastern areas. However, cloud will thicken in the west in the afternoon and southwesterly winds will bring in less cold air and scattered showers.

Friday looks to be cold and mostly cloudy with showers, some wintry on higher ground. Afternoon highs of 5°C to 8°C.

Farming forecast

In its farming forecast for the week ahead, Met Éireann predicts below-average rainfall up until Thursday, followed by a risk of some heavy rain in many parts and even some sleet or snow during Friday and Saturday. There is a good chance the heaviest of the rain will affect western parts of the country.

Mean air temperatures will be a degree below average this coming week, so take extra precautions when insulating young calves.

Due to the dry weather, spraying and drying conditions will be good in many parts up until Thursday.

However, field conditions in some of the areas affected by the winter flooding are still waterlogged and the land is expected to remain very heavy.

Read more

Monday management: time to get grazing