Most areas will become dry on Monday night under clear spells; showers will become increasingly confined to the Atlantic coastal fringes.

A few pockets of mist may form locally, in mainly light west to northwest breezes. Met Éireann has forecast for it to be a cool night, with overnight lows of 7 to 10 degrees Celsius.

Tuesday

Rather cool and showery weather is forecast on Tuesday with northerly breezes. Showers will be heaviest across the west and southwest to begin.

The heavy showers will move in across the midlands and southeast through the afternoon, with the risk of some thundery falls later. Elsewhere heavy showers will be well scattered with some nice sunshine at times.

It will become drier through the evening, as heavy showers become isolated. Temperatures will be below normal, with maximum temperatures ranging 14 to 17 or 18 degrees Celsius.

Wednesday

Most places will see a dry day on Wednesday with variable cloud amounts and sunshine, according to Met Éireann.

A few isolated showers will occur also, mainly over the eastern half of the country. Temperatures will be near normal with highest values of 17 to 21 degrees in mostly light to moderate north to northwest winds.

Thursday

Current indications suggest much of Thursday will be dry with spells of hazy sunshine and light variable breezes.

Cloud will thicken later, however, and outbreaks of rain will sweep in over the country from the Atlantic during the evening and night, as winds back southwesterly and freshen along west and northwest coasts.

Top temperatures will rise to between 16 to 20 degrees Celsius.

Friday

Friday is forecast to be mostly cloudy and breezy with scattered outbreaks of rain, but brighter more showery weather following from the west later.

Moderate to fresh southwesterly winds will veer westerly as maximum temperatures range between 16 to 20 degrees.

Farming forecast

Rain

The driest period this week will occur on Wednesday/Thursday.

The net result will be average rainfall figures of about 30-50% for the seven days going forward.

Temperatures

Soil temperatures of 16 to 17 degrees were just slightly above average by around 1 degree or so last week and will remain unchanged for the week ahead, Met Éireann has said.

Drying and spraying conditions

Good drying conditions are expected on Wednesday/Thursday and there will be plenty of opportunities for spraying this week.

Field conditions

With all the rain in the west the land has turned heavy there, but eastern counties are still very firm.