People in the west of the country are being warned to batten down the hatches as hurricane-force winds hit the country. Met Éireann issued its most severe weather warning, a red warning, for most of the west coast. The status red warning will remain in place until Thursday evening. Met Éireann is forecasting gusts of between 130km/h and 150km/h to hit Donegal, Sligo, Mayo, Galway, Clare, Limerick and Kerry. The storm has been named Storm Rachel.

A less severe warning, a status yellow, will remain in place until late on Thursday evening. The warning relates to high winds and affects all areas of Ireland.

The high winds are forecast to give way before the weekend and will be replaced by fresher gusts. It will also turn showery but frost is still expected at night. Rain, sleet and snow is expected to spread across the country on Monday with high levels of snow possible for the east on Monday evening.