Say goodbye to sunshine as temperatures due to plummet on Easter Sunday

From Sunday, despite a good start to the day in the south of the country, showers can be expected later in the day.

Looking out our windows now, it would seem summer is already well underway, but sadly that's not the case as temperatures are set to drop sharply late on Easter Sunday.

After a dry and settled start to the weekend, cold air is expected to dominate the country next week.

According to Met Éireann, Saturday night will be dry with clear spells, and some patches of mist and fog but temperatures are expected to dip into low single figures.

From Sunday, despite a good start to the day in the south of the country, showers can be expected later in the day.

Arctic cold air is set to blow in on Sunday, bringing a risk of snow and sleet.

Low temperatures of -1 to +4 degrees can be expected on Sunday evening with frost in places.

Met Éireann meteorologist, Matthew Martin, said: “Easter Sunday will start dry with sunshine for most and whilst southern areas will continue to enjoy a dry and bright day, a cold front will introduce cloud and rain across the northern half of the country through the afternoon – it’s this cold front that opens the gates to very cold air from the Arctic from Easter Sunday night and through much of next week” Sunday night will see temperatures fall to as low as minus one, with frost appearing in places.

By Easter Monday, scattered showers will set in with some turning wintry and the freezing temperatures will continue.

Monday night could see temperatures on minus three as icy patches begin to develop.

Alan O'Reilly from Carlow Weather says that while the weather will remain nice going into the weekend, "we're going to see a change" from Sunday. 

"Well the early part of the weekend will be quite nice," he said.

"It will be cool but the winds will be slack on Saturday and some nice good sunshine but it will be warmer again in the southwest of the country with cooler conditions.

"But really from Sunday, we're going to see a change. Now the southern half of the country will have a nice start on Sunday and it should hold dry for many parts of the south but later in the day showers will start to feed in with cooler air."

Meanwhile, widespread fog is due on Sunday as Met Éireann issued a status yellow fog warning for eight counties on Sunday.

The warning comes into effect at 4am tomorrow and will be in place until 10am.

Met Éireann has warned of “widespread fog” and “impaired visibility” for all of Connacht, Cavan, Monaghan, Longford.