Cold weather due to return after brief respite

The freezing temperatures and snow showers which affected the country over the last two days will give way to warmer weather today, Met Éireann has said.

Temperatures dipped to minus 3 degrees in places on Tuesday night leading to heavy falls of snow, particularly along the east, north and northwest coasts.

Some roads in Donegal and Wicklow remained closed for much of yesterday morning. Some snow showers are likely in the early hours of this morning and the roads will be icy, but the temperatures will gradually creep upwards during the day.

"That quite intense clump of snow is unlikely to be repeated, because it will be drier, but we can expect frosty, icy roads in the early morning," Met Éireann forecaster Deirdre Lowe said.

Any remaining snow today will be gone by night time as the warmer weather sets in, she said. "The warm front means that later in the day there's a chance of drizzly rain and any snow which managed to lie will melt. That mild front pushing in during the day will result in temperatures reaching double figures overnight."

The respite in temperatures tonight is likely to be brief, Ms Lowe said, as the cold weather sets in again tomorrow.

"It will be colder again during the day on Friday and cold for the weekend. The weather will generally be dry but frosty."

Friday morning will start warm with temperatures of 8 to 9 degrees, however, it will get colder during the day. Daytime temperatures on Saturday and Sunday will be about 5 to 6 degrees, but while Saturday will be breezy, Sunday will be calm, making the weather feel milder. Night time values will stay close to freezing.

"It will continue pretty cold but settled early next week, but the high pressure in charge will make it dry and there won't be much wind, so it won't feel as cold during the day, but we can still expect the frost overnight," Ms Lowe said.

While cold snaps were not unexpected at this time of year, it was unusual that this one was lasting so long, she said.