Friday

Sunshine and showers are forecast on Friday, with southwesterly winds mainly light to moderate over land. These winds will become variable in direction later on in the day.

The showers are forecast to be most frequent in the north at first, then in the west of the country, merging to give longer spells of rain at times in the west and southwest later.

Highest temperatures will not rise higher than 7°C.

On Friday night, Met Éireann has forecast for showers to continue for a time in the southwest, before a new batch of showers develops in the north and northeast.

These are expected to extend down the eastern coastal counties overnight, turning wintry on hills and mountains.

Temperatures will drop on Friday night to between 0°C and -2°C and light northeast winds will become moderate to fresh by morning.

Saturday

Saturday will see further showers in the east and southeast with cloudier conditions there, according to Met Éireann.

Sunshine in the north and northwest will extend to all areas as the day goes on.

Winds will be fresh northeasterly in direction and will be strong all along the east and later south coasts, making it feel extra cold, with temperatures in the afternoon of just 3°C to 6°C.

A cold, dry night is forecast on Saturday night with clear skies and light winds from a northeasterly direction.

Temperatures are expected to fall to as low as -5°C in the northwest of the country with frost, ice and freezing fog in places.

Temperatures on southern coasts will be higher, but still forecast as low as -2°C away from coasts.

Sunday

Met Éireann has forecast for Sunday to be a dry day and again there will be some good spells of sunshine for many, with light easterly winds.

It'll be a cold day though, with temperatures barely above freezing in parts of the north during the daytime.

Temperatures will generally range between 1°C and 5°C.

It will be cold and very frosty on again on Sunday night with expected lowest temperatures ranging between -3°C and -5°C, with only the east and south coasts remaining just above freezing.

Management notes

Beef

In this week’s beef management notes, Adam Woods looks at slurry issues and completing a profit monitor.

Sheep

This week's notes cover weather challenges, liver fluke and a reminder to submit your sheep census while it is still fresh in your head.

Dairy

This week, Aidan Brennan looks at assessing damage caused by the most recent storm, what to look at in the profit monitor and says now is the time to give the rota virus vaccine.

Tillage

It seems that 2018 is starting to be as wet as 2017 finished up, but there are still essential jobs that need to be done on tillage farms.