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| Keele Beach, County Mayo. Image loveachill.com |
Saturday has brought overcast conditions for most of Ireland, but the sun has managed to break through in southwestern and western counties.
NASA’s MODIS image of Ireland at midday today shows clearer conditions across Kerry, north Clare, May and Galway, as seen on these live webcam stills from Brandon Bay in Kerry and Keele Beach in Mayo at 3.30pm.
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| Image NASA |
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| Brandon Bay, Kerry |
Clearing skies early tonight will lead to a drop in temperatures away from southern and eastern counties as temperatures fall to between -3 and +3 degrees. The coldest temperatures will be in the western half of Ireland.
Last night’s lowest temperatures at Met Éireann’s and the UKMO’s synoptic stations were recorded at Shannon Airport, County Clare (-0.9c) and Castlederg, County Tyrone (-3.1c).
Sunday will be another largely cloudy day with the best chance of any sunny breaks in western counties and northern counties. Top temperatures tomorrow of 4 to 7c.
With the exception of light showers affecting eastern coastal counties during Saturday night and Sunday, the weekend will be dry. Eastern counties will see some light rain with sleet or snow on mountains pushing in off the Irish Sea during Monday.
Frost and ice will be less widespread Sunday night, but Monday looks like being the coolest day of the current dry spell with temperatures not rising above 3 to 6c. Turning cold again Monday night.
Total rainfall totals up to Thursday morning look very low with some places remaining completely dry. Overcast conditions are likely to persist in many places up to Thursday, however.
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| Image Meteociel.fr |
Beyond Thursday our weather is a lot more uncertain with latest data showing equal chances of a more Atlantic dominated weather setup and a colder northeasterly or easterly setup. It is so evenly matched that Ireland looks like being on the dividing line between milder and much colder air by Thursday. This could lead to return of more widespread rain, at least for the western half of Ireland.
This afternoon’s ICON model significantly weakens the Atlantic’s push toward Ireland which allows for a greater surge of cold air from the continent toward Ireland. The dividing line between colder and less cold airmasses gets rooted over northern Britain from Wednesday. Any further weaking of the Atlantic will allow for a greater push west of cold air due to the anticipated amplifying of heights linking Scandinavia and Greenland.
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| Image Meteociel.fr |
This afternoon's UKMO backs a colder solution by later next week with a very cold continental airmass extending west into Ireland and Britain.