Ireland is set to be blasted with gale force winds and heavy rain this week as a weather warning has been put in place.
Met Eireann has issued a Status Yellow Gale warning that will remain in place for all coastal areas on Friday morning, with strong winds expected especially in the west and southwest of the country.
The weather warning will remain in place from 4am until 1pm on Friday afternoon.
Southwest winds will occasionally reach gale force on all coasts of Ireland and on the Irish Sea with people warned to secure any garden furniture or trampolines.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Hurricane Ian began to batter Florida today with powerful winds and rain, as it intensified to nearly the strongest Category 5 level.
Over 2 million people have been issued with mandatory evacuation orders in areas along the coastline of the Gulf of Florida.
The eye of the storm is expected on Florida's south coast soon, bringing with it intense winds of 250 km (155 miles) per hour - although it will likely weaken after making landfall.
However, the strong winds we will see here in Ireland at the end of the week will not be related to the fallout from the United States' Hurricane Ian.
Met Eireann forecaster Conall Ruth told the Irish Mirror: “We’re not going to see any direct impact from Hurricane Ian, it’ll be staying on the other side of the Atlantic.”
The weather is set to take a turn for the worse on Friday and will remain mixed over the weekend, though we can expect some drier weather on Sunday.
He continued: “In terms of our weather for the next few days, for the rest of today and tomorrow we will have a good deal of dry weather and largely clear or sunny - with isolated showers.
“Friday will be turning very wet and windy with prolonged rain in the morning and afternoon and strong winds, especially in coastal areas. Later in the day it will be turning to more scattered showers but still the potential for some wet weather.
“For the weekend it will be mixed, a mix of sunny spells and showers. Sunday looks like the drier of the two days at the moment.
“There is still some uncertainty into the early days of next week, the potential for some wet weather there but at the moment the best guess is that it will stay largely dry on Monday at least.”
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