Photo: North Kerry on Sunday (Noel O'Connor)
-- Temperatures will average 1 to 2 deg below normal values, coldest around Friday.
-- Rainfall will average 50 to 75 per cent of normal, most of it expected after Sunday.
-- Sunshine will average near normal for early March (about three hours a day).
FORECASTS
TODAY will be partly cloudy to sunny once any fog or low cloud dissipate, although some of that could be persistent near coasts (east and south). Rather mild in the west, chilly in the east. Highs 8 to 12 C.
TONIGHT will see an increase in cloud preventing a lot of frost from returning, low cloud is more likely and lows will be 2 to 5 C.
WEDNESDAY will be cloudy with some sunny breaks, cool, with risk of showers in parts of the east, highs 8 to 11 C.
THURSDAY will be partly cloudy to overcast, chilly, with northeast breezes, isolated showers, lows near 3 C and highs 7 to 10 C.
FRIDAY will be partly cloudy and cold with isolated showers, possibly sleety on hills, lows near 3 C and highs near 7 except 9-10 C in the southwest.
SATURDAY will be partly cloudy and slightly milder with isolated showers, highs near 10 C.
SUNDAY will become overcast with outbreaks of light rain possible, more breezy than the rest of this week, with highs 10 to 12 C.
MONDAY into TUESDAY, an Atlantic disturbance is expected and it could be fairly strong with locally heavy rainfalls and strong winds, staying rather cold with temperatures 7 to 9 C, winds westerly at least 50 to 80 km/hr during the period.
The outlook is rather wintry, after that disturbance passes another one may travel further south and turn winds around to the east with quite cold air left over from this week's arctic air mass over Britain, and while that phase will not have a direct impact in Ireland, next week it's possible that we might see mixed forms of precipitation or a cold rain with east winds (most likely mid-week around 9th-10th) followed by a rather mobile Atlantic pattern that might eventually start mixing in warmer air masses later in the month.
Peter O'Donnell for IWO