Met Éireann has issued a Status Yellow snow-ice warning for the full country, warning of hazardous conditions in places.

Issued last night, Monday, January 27, at 9:00pm, the alert came into effect an hour later at 10:00pm; this will remain valid until 12:00pm today.

Issuing the notice, Met Éireann warned that there will be hazardous conditions in places overnight and this morning due to compacted snow and ice.

The national meteorological office added that there will be further snow showers also, with these heaviest in the south-west, west and north.

The forecaster said that it will be cold and frosty to start with this morning with icy stretches on untreated surfaces and lying snow in places.

Today there will be a mix of sunshine and scattered wintry showers, the showers frequent over the western half of the country with a risk of hail and thunder there.

Highest temperatures of 4° to 7° are expected in fresh and gusty westerly winds, strong along Atlantic coasts.

Scattered showers will continue tonight, mainly of rain but these could turn wintry in parts of the north and west and on high ground, Met Éireann warns.

The showers will ease towards dawn. Lows of between 0° and 2° are on the cards in the eastern half of the country early in the night with some frost patches but temperatures will increase to between 2° to 5° by morning countrywide. Westerly winds will be mostly moderate.

It will turn milder from tomorrow onwards with daytime highs of 8° to 10°.

There will be scattered showers, which will turn into longer spells of rain at times in the north and north-west.

Elsewhere, the showers will become isolated through the day with bright or sunny spells developing, Met Éireann concludes.