The trends remain on the mild side of normal with frequent rainfalls and limited but near average amounts of sunshine.
FORECASTS
TONIGHT may start out rather chilly especially in parts of Leinster and
Ulster with evening lows of 2-5 C but further west milder air will
already be arriving and this will rapidly spread east, with heavy rain
following on strong southerly winds increasing to 70-110 km/hr by
morning. Temperatures will be on the rise after midnight wherever they
might be below 5 C, to the 9-10 C range by dawn.
FRIDAY will start out very windy with heavy rain at times, a total of
15-30 mm expected. Conditions will improve slightly for the afternoon
with partial clearing in some western counties and rain tapering to
showers further east. Highs 10-12 C around mid-day, could fall off
slightly in the west after mid-afternoon.
SATURDAY will be breezy to windy and rather mild in the east, as another
fast-moving low develops and tracks from south coast to Ulster late in
the day. This one might not encounter cold enough air to turn the
precipitation over to sleet or snow like last night's low, but there
will be a temperature gradient from near 5 C northwest, to 12 C
southeast, as the low arrives. This could create a squall line feature
and thunderstorms, and strong gusty winds from the south veering to
southwest with gusts above 80 km/hr.
SUNDAY will be partly cloudy and less windy with moderate temperatures, highs near 9 C.
Around MONDAY-TUESDAY another strong low is expected, probably not until
Monday night into Tuesday morning, and that one will also produce
strong south to southwest winds and briefly heavy rainfalls.
Temperatures will be around 10 C.
The rest of next week looks a bit more settled with some influence of
high pressure likely by about Thursday and Friday, when it might turn a
bit colder. Low pressure areas are likely to return to the weather
picture after that but with cooler air in place, either a chilly
rainfall or a sleety mix is possible from these around the last weekend
of this month into early March.
Peter O'Donnell for IWO.