TRENDS for the week of 12 to 18 March 2021
-- Temperatures will average slightly below normal, getting a bit warmer
at least for daytime readings towards end of this interval.
-- Rainfall will begin to fade out of the picture after Sunday, so totals may come in around 50 to 75 per cent of normal.
-- Sunshine will begin to improve at the same time, the results should
be almost normal amounts but the interval will start out well below
that.
FORECASTS
TONIGHT will be partly to mostly cloudy with showers, moderate westerly winds 40 to 70 km/hr, lows 2 to 5 C.
SATURDAY will be breezy, cool with passing showers, some with hail and
thunder, winds west to northwest 50 to 80 km/hr, some higher gusts near
west coast, and highs 7 to 9 C.
SUNDAY will turn somewhat milder, with some fog or mist at times, patchy
light rain or drizzle, lows near 4 C and highs near 11 C. Less windy
although some gusts to 50 km/hr from westerly breezes.
MONDAY will be partly cloudy to overcast, with a rather weak frontal
band pushing through northern and some inland western counties, reaching
the east coast late in the day in an even weaker condition, highs near
12 C.
TUESDAY will be sunny with cloudy intervals, lows 2 to 5 C and highs 12 to 15 C.
WEDNESDAY will be sunny with cloudy intervals, after some patchy morning
fog and frost, lows -1 to +3 C and highs 13 to 16 C, warmest in the
inland southwest and west.
By THURSDAY there will be the start of a cooling trend again as the high
pressure area responsible for the improved weather edges further north
and allows light northeast winds to develop. This could cool Leinster
and east Ulster to around 8-10 C while keeping some counties further
west milder at 12 to 15 C still. However, by FRIDAY and SATURDAY a more
organized push of cooler air from the east will bring down temperatures
to the 7-9 C level in all regions, with slight frosts likely at night.
This cooler regime looks like it may dominate the following week too,
with a slightly more unsettled theme as the high moves away further and
weakens, allowing a more variable regime but mainly northerly to
easterly flow during that, rather than a resumption of Atlantic
dominated flow; that may follow eventually.
Peter O'Donnell for IWO