Weather warning for heavy rain in south and east of country tonight

Much of the east and south of the country is facing into 24 hours of very heavy rain on Thursday night into Friday morning.

Met Éireann has issued orange weather warnings for Co Cork and Co Waterford with the likelihood of persistent and heavy rain and localised flooding. The warning is in place from 4pm on Thursday to 6pm on Friday.

An orange weather warning means the possibility of between 50mm and 80mm in 24 hours or between two and three inches of rain.

The latest European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWR) predicts 70mm of rain in north Cork by midnight on Saturday morning.

Your top stories on Thursday

---

Inside the early morning operation to move asylum seekers from Mount Street encampment

---

Hannah Daly: Batteries are vital to ending fossil fuel dependence

---

Dave Hannigan: Grotesque Tyson-Paul spectacle the very antithesis of a real sporting event

---

A separate yellow weather warning for rain is being issued for the counties of Carlow, Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Offaly, Wexford, Wicklow, Kerry, Limerick, and Tipperary. The likelihood is for between 30 and 50mms in 24 hours.

The warning is also from 6pm on Thursday to 6pm on Friday.

Any lingering rain will clear eastwards Saturday morning. The afternoon and evening will bring a mix of sunny spells and showers, most frequent in the east.

Sunday is likely to be cloudy and wet with heavy rainfall moving up from the south.