The week will start off sunny, with the odd heavy shower of rain on Monday afternoon, mainly along the east. Highest temperatures will range 7°C to 10°C across the northern half of the country, but 11°C to 13°C further south. It will be much colder by the evening, with a brisk northwest wind setting in and there may be some wintry and possibly thundery showers in northern areas. Elsewhere, it will be generally dry, with frost mainly for sheltered areas.

It will be cold on Tuesday, with heavy blustery showers. The rain will be mainly in the north and northwest to begin, but it will become more widespread through the afternoon, with a risk of hail and thunder. Tuesday night will see a fairly widespread frost, with minimum temperatures of -1°C to 3°C. There will be some showers along the coast and any showers inland may be wintry, mainly in Ulster.

Staying cold by midweek, but a bright and sunny day is forecast for Wednesday. There will be some showers, but not as heavy as earlier in the week. Temperatures also won’t be as low by nightfall, between 2°C to 6°C. It will be cloudy, with some patchy rain across northern and eastern areas, and there will be some grass frost in places.

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Thursday is set to be mostly cloudy, with some light rain and top temperatures of 9°C to 12°C.

Early indications suggest Friday could be a dry but cloudy day, ahead of more unsettled conditions over the weekend.

Farming forecast

Rainfall

After a mostly dry week, the coming seven days are to be wetter than normal across a lot of the country. A cold northerly wind will bring plenty of heavy showers during the early part of the week. Towards next weekend, winds will move southwesterly, with rain bands moving in from the Atlantic.

Temperatures

Mean air temperatures over the last week have been near or slightly above average, but very cold weather is expected until Wednesday of this week, with a risk of the wintry showers and overnight frost. However, after Wednesday temperatures will gradually increase. Generally, temperatures for the coming week will be 0.5°C to 1.4°C below normal, while soil temperatures are 2.5°C and 3.5°C above normal at present.

Drying conditions

Drying conditions are currently moderate, but with a colder, windier and more showery regime expected until midweek, conditions will be poor at times. There will be an improvement on Thursday and Friday before deteriorating over the weekend again.

Spraying

Winds will freshen today from a mainly northerly direction, so spraying opportunities will be limited, although improving again for Thursday and Friday.

Field conditions

Field conditions are good at present and no great change is forecast.