The showers will become more isolated later, but will persist in the north, falling as rain or sleet this afternoon. Rain or drizzle in the southwest this afternoon.

Tonight will be dry apart from some patchy rain or drizzle in the southwest, according to Met Éireann. It will be very cold with clear spells and patches of freezing fog. There’ll be a severe frost with icy stretches on roads. Lowest temperatures of -5 to +2 degrees, coldest in the south midlands and least cold in the southwest.

Outlook for the next few days

Saturday morning will be cold and frosty with fog patches and ice on roads. It will be mainly dry with sunny spells. However, it will become cloudier later in the day, with a few spots of drizzle in places.

Saturday night will be mainly dry and cold, with a few showers in north and east Ulster. A sharp frost will develop in many areas with icy stretches on roads. Lowest temperatures of -2 to +2 degrees, but becoming milder in the southwest overnight as southerly winds freshen.

Sunday will start off dry with frost gradually clearing with south to southeast winds. Rain will develop in the southwest by noon and will spread northeastwards through the afternoon and evening. It will continue for much of the night and will become heavy at times.

Mild spells of rain throughout next week. Although Tuesday night will be mainly dry with clear spells, and some ground frost. By Thursday and Friday there will be mild spells of rain crossing the country and it will become quite windy at times also.

Management

Darren Carty advises on creep feeding early born lambs, late pregnancy feeding and being on guard for potential abortion outbreak and continued reports of liver fluke deaths in sheep.

Pneumonia is a key issue facing beef farmers. Nathan Tuffy writes on how to overcome this as well as other management advice.

With slurry spreading season now open for farms in Zone A and opening Saturday for farms in Zone B, Aidan Brennan warns of the danger of wet land and slurry tankers.

Wet continues to keep machines off the land but the forecasted cold conditions may enable some frozen ground to be sprayed or spread writes Andy Doyle.