The weekend ahead will be unsettled and changeable, with heavy showers in places and it will be windy at times, Met Eireann has forecast.

Today, Friday is forecast to start off wet in most places, with the rain affecting much of Leinster, Ulster and north Connacht in the morning.

The rain will then clear slowly northeastwards in the afternoon, with brighter weather with sunny spells and showers following from the southwest.

Highest temperatures today are forecast to range between 17 to 20 degrees with fresh, gusty east to southeast winds.

Tonight, showers or longer spells of rain are forecast overnight, heavy in places. It is forecast to be windy over the southern half of the country also, with fresh to strong southwest to westerly winds.

Both drying conditions and spraying conditions over the next few days will be poor, while some soils could reach saturation and possibly may become waterlogged over the next few days.

Met Eireann suggests that between around 25 and 70mm of rain could fall between now and the end of the weekend, the wettest being in the south of the country.

Saturday

Current indications from Met Eireann suggest that it will be windy and very wet tomorrow Saturday, with showers or longer spells of rain, heavy and thundery at times and with a risk of some spot flooding.

There will be a few bright spells, but it will remain mainly cloudy and misty, with top temperatures of just 15 to 18 degrees, in fresh to strong and gusty westerly winds.

The rain or showers will tend to die out overnight, Met Eireann has said.

Sunday

Some dry, bright weather is forecast for a time on Sunday with some sunny spells and just a few scattered showers.

However, Met Eireann has said that another spell of rain is set to affect the Atlantic seaboard around lunchtime Sunday.

This rain is forecast to extend across the country in the afternoon and early evening, with top temperatures 17 to 19 C.

The rain should clear overnight so that Monday should be a mainly dry, bright, day, with sunny spells. However, it looks set to become changeable again then, in the run up to midweek.