Spring will be welcomed in Ireland in a traditional fashion - with heavy rain showers, sleet and even some snow on higher ground.
Met Eireann are predicting an 'unsettled' few days, but even they are 'uncertain' at the time of writing about what will follow. One thing we do know is that starting from Wednesday afternoon, things are going to get an awful lot wetter.
One positive point is that it won't actually be too cold, save for when the sun goes down.
The latest forecast from Met Eireann looks like this:
Wednesday
A fair amount of dry weather on Wednesday morning, with some bright or sunny periods and a little drizzle. Cloud will increase through the afternoon with outbreaks of light rain and drizzle becoming widespread. Highest temperatures of 8 to 11 degrees. Mostly cloudy tonight with outbreaks of rain and drizzle. However, it will become drier away from west and northwest fringes overnight with some clear spells.
Thursday
Thursday morning will be mostly dry with some sunny spells and just a little patchy drizzle. A band of rain will move into the northwest in the afternoon, turning heavy in places and slowly clearing southeastwards across the country through the day. It will be windy too with squally fresh to strong southwesterly winds, which will veer northwesterly and moderate as the rain clears. Temperatures in the afternoon will be around 10 to 12 degrees.
Rain will clear the southeast early in the night to dry, cold and clear conditions. Scattered showers of rain, hail or sleet, will move into the northwest and west. The showers will extend further inland later in the night. Some snow showers are possible on mountains in Ulster, with temperatures of 0 to 4 degrees.
Friday
A cold and bright day with sunny spells and scattered showers of rain or sleet, possibly snow on higher ground. The showers will be most frequent in the north and west. Highest afternoon temperatures of 5 to 8 degrees in moderate to fresh westerly wind.
Cold with clear spells and scattered showers becoming confined to coastal parts of the west and northwest. Lowest temperatures of 1 to 5 degrees. Light to moderate southwest winds will freshen towards dawn with outbreaks of rain pushing in across Ulster.
The forecast finishes off by noting there is some 'uncertainty' surrounding how Saturday and the weekend will look - but it is expected that the rain will stick around for another couple of days.
