Heavy rain and strong winds on way this evening

Met Éireann has issued a wind and rainfall warning for parts of the country later this evening.

A status orange weather warning with strong winds is in place. Gusts of up to 120 kilometres per hour are predicted to batter parts of Dublin, Louth, Wexford, Wicklow, Meath, Donegal, Galway, Mayo, Cork, Kerry and Waterford tonight.

Meanwhile, a status yellow rainfall warning is also in place for the whole country with up to 40 millimetres of rain forecast to fall in all areas.

The warnings come into effect at 6pm this evening and are valid until 6am tomorrow morning.

Met Éireann meteorologist Harm Luijkx said flooding is possible in some parts of the country.

"Any area is at risk of having rain from 25mm to 40mm starting from this evening," he said.

"It will be windy across the country but areas most at risk are the south and east coasts later in the night as winds come from the south or south-east direction, so it will be very exposed there."