The week ahead will be unsettled, with rain, frost and spells of sunshine, Met Eireann says.

A status yellow wind warning is in place until 3pm today (Monday) across the country, Met Eireann says.

Winds will be southerly with mean speeds of 35 to 55 km/h occasionally gusting to 100km/h in exposed areas, it says.

Today (Monday) will be a fresh blustery day with good sunny spells, there will be passing heavy showers also with a risk of hail and isolated thunderstorms, it says.

According to Met Eireann there will be highest temperatures of 16 degrees with winds reaching gale force in coastal areas of the west and southwest.

Tonight (Monday) there will be scattered showers and temperatures will fall back to between 5 and 7 degrees.

Looking to Tuesday, it says there will be further showers in the afternoon but they will tend to ease off during the afternoon.

It says it will be a slightly cooler day with highs of 11 to 15 degrees in moderate westerly winds and Tuesday night will be dry and cold with temperatures dropping to 1 and 3 degrees.

Frost is expected overnight and there will be mist in places, it says.

Met Eireann says that Wednesday will be a dry, bright day with good spells of sunshine.

There will be highs of 11 to 16 degrees, and it will be warmest in the west of the country as easterly breezes cool things down in eastern areas, it says.

Rain will spread northwards over night and it will be a mild night with lows of 5 to 8 degrees in freshening easterly winds, it says.

The rain will continue into Thursday morning however, it will start to clear away to the east in the late afternoon, it says and it will be a cool day with highs of 10 to 13 degrees.

Frost is likely on Thursday night and it will be cold with lows of 1 to 3 degrees, Met Eireann says.

Looking to Friday, the day will start dry however, rain will move in to western coastal counties in the afternoon and will move eastwards during the evening, it says.

Met Eireann says the rain is to clear on Friday night and temperatures will fall to between 5 and 8 degrees.