A status yellow rain warning is in place for a number of Munster counties that may lead to flooding and dangerous driving conditions later this week.
Met Éireann has advised that counties Cork, Kerry and Waterford will be subject to this weather warning and it will be in place from 2:00a.m Wednesday, December 22 to 6:00a.m Thursday, December 23.
According to the national meteorological service, “several bands of heavy rainfall will bring accumulations of 30-50mm, with higher totals likely in mountainous regions”.
Drivers and other road users are urged to be cautious as this heavy rainfall may lead to “localised flooding and hazardous driving conditions”.
Meanwhile, the dry conditions that we have experienced up to now are set to come to an end tonight, generally.
This dry spell will be replaced by an Atlantic depression, that will “steer up bands of rain” across the country in the lead up to Christmas Day, according to Met Éireann.
There is a degree of uncertainty beyond this point, but rainfall totals are likely to be well above average over the next seven days.
Temperatures
Temperatures will turn milder from Wednesday to Friday (this week), though beyond that the temperature profile is still uncertain. Soil temperatures are between 1.5- 3oC above normal, with values between 5.4- 8.7oC. Soil temperatures over the coming week will remain above normal for this time of year.
Spraying
From mid-week spraying opportunities will become limited.
Field conditions
Soils are saturated countrywide and drying conditions will be poor, so there will be just limited improvement in soil conditions for the early part of this week, deteriorating again from midweek onwards.