Ireland weather: snow and Ice warnings issued as temperatures to plummet as low as -5C tonight

Met Éireann has issued fresh warnings for snow and ice which are due to start this evening.

A Status Yellow low temperature and ice warning has been issued for counties Cavan, Donegal, Monaghan, Longford, Louth, Meath, Westmeath and all of Connacht from 9pm tonight until 9am tomorrow, with “hazardous conditions” likely on roads and footpaths.

A Status Yellow snow warning has also been issued for Cork and Kerry from midnight until noon tomorrow.

"Patchy sleet or snow overnight and Wednesday morning. Potential for hazardous conditions on some roads and footpaths,” Met Éireann said.

Meanwhile, the UK’s Met Office has also issued a Status Yellow snow and ice warnings for counties Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Derry from 7pm this evening until 9am tomorrow and again from 3am on Thursday until 6pm on Friday. 

"Heavy snow has the potential to cause significant disruption on Thursday and Friday,” the Met Office said.

The lowest temperature recorded last night was -3.4C at Mount Dillon, Co Roscommon, while temperatures today are set to reach “6C or 7C” today, Met Éireann Meteorologist Gerry Murphy said. 

"Another very cold frosty night tonight and the temperatures could get down as low as -5C in parts of the northern half of the country.

"However, the roads should be that bit drier which means while there certainly icy scratches in places, the risk of more widespread ice won't be quite as high.”

Mr Murphy said a weather system which is moving towards the southern half the country, could bring “some showers of sleet, possibly some snow on higher ground” in parts of Cork and Kerry from Wednesday night.

"There will also be some wintry showers up in the northwest of the country, even some small accumulations of snow there too,” he told RTÉ Radio. 

Mr Murphy said there is a “risk of something more significant” on Wednesday night and into Thursday.

"Eventually a weather system pushes up over the country to Wednesday night and Thursday and as as it needs that cold air it's going to fall as rain, sleet and snow,” he said.

"Currently it looks as falling as rain and sleet on Thursday over the southern half of the country, but it does look like falling as sleet and snow in parts of the northern half of the country on Thursday.

"So, the details of that will become apparent over the next day or so.”

Mr Murphy said a “cold northerly airflow” will dominate the country’s weather over the coming days. 

"It is not unusual that basically you will get a cold spell of weather in the beginning of March. It’s still quite early in the Spring… so it’s not untypical to have weather like this,” he added.