It will be a cold and wet Easter weekend, with wintry showers and frost while current indications from Met Eireann suggest next week will continue cold and unsettled.

Today, Good Friday, will be a mostly dry day. It will be bright in the morning with sunny spells.

The best of these sunny spells are promised for the east of the country, but cloud is to increase from the Atlantic.

Rain is promised for the west coast by this evening.

Southerly winds today will be increase fresh to strong and gusty as top temperatures range between 11 and 13 degrees.

Tonight is forecast to become wet and windy as rain moves eastwards over the country.

Met Eireann expects the rain to be heavy and persistent and may lead to spot flooding. With rain on the way drying conditions will be poor for the weekend and into next week.

The fresh southerly winds are to ease by morning and temperatures will range between 4 and 6 degrees.

Easter Saturday will see further rain or showers with just a few brighter spells.

Moderate southerly winds are promised to veer southwest for a time and temperatures will be between 9 and 11 degrees at best.

From Saturday onwards all soil types will become saturated for most of the country, although in southeastern areas soils will remain trafficable, according to Met Eireann.

Looking to Saturday night and it’s forecast to be a cold night with wintry showers along the west coast.

Otherwise, it’s promised to be mainly dry but a frost is likely under clearing skies as winds ease up somewhat later.

Easter Sunday looks set to be a cold and breezy day with scattered wintry showers.

There is the possibility of a spell of persistent rain in the south and southeast on Sunday night and early Monday, Met Eireann has said, but the track of this developing feature is uncertain and other wise Sunday night will be mainly dry.

Current indications suggest that Monday will be mainly dry with scattered showers in a moderate to fresh westerly wind.

Met Eireann’s outlook for the early days of next week is for continued cold unsettled weather with showers at times.