Met Éireann is predicting fairly unsettled weather over the coming days, with blustery and showery conditions over the weekend and into next week.
Today, Friday, May 22, will be cool, windy and showery with strong, very gusty south-westerly winds and gales in western and northern coastal areas, resulting in some damaging gusts.
Heavy showers or longer spells of rain in Ulster, Connacht and west Munster will extend to all areas this morning and continue for the rest of the day. However, there will be some good sunny spells too. Highest temperatures will be 12° to 16°.
Tomorrow, Saturday, May 23, will be a blustery or windy day. It will be mostly cloudy over the northern half of the country with spells of showery rain. It will be brighter further south with a mix of sunshine and showers.
Highest temperatures will be 12° to 16° with fresh, gusty westerly winds, which will be strong to gale force in the north-west.
Saturday night will see outbreaks of rain continuing in Ulster and north Connacht, which will eventually clear by morning. The rest of the country will be mainly dry, with a fair amount of cloud and some clear spells. Lowest temperatures will be 7° to 9° with fresh, gusty westerly winds, which will gradually moderate.
Highest temperatures on Sunday will range from 15° in the west to 20° in the east with moderate south-westerly breezes.
Monday morning, May 25, will be dry in most areas with sunny spells. However, rain and drizzle will develop in the west by around noon, and then move slowly eastwards across the country and linger over Leinster and Munster on Monday night.
Rainfall amounts on Monday will be small. Highest temperatures will be 14° in the west to 20° in the east with moderate southerly breezes.
Wednesday, May 27, will be warm and humid, with rain over west Munster, Connacht and Ulster. It will be drier to the east and south-east, with some bright spells. Highest temperatures will be 14° to 18° over the western half of the country and reaching 19° to 22° further east.
Thursday, May 28, and Friday, May 29, will see further spells of rain at times in the west and north, but it will be mainly dry in the east and south.
Drying, spraying and soil moisture deficits
With most of the country expected to see some rainfall over the next 24 hours or more, drying conditions are likely to be hampered.
Spraying opportunities will also be limited over the coming days, due to wet and very windy conditions. There will be more opportunities from Sunday on, particularly in the south and east.
Soil moisture deficits currently range from 30mm to 70mm for all soils (well to poorly drained) with restrictions to growth presented in some areas. A slight improvement should come in the next seven days in parts of the west and north-west, but elsewhere there will not be significant enough rainfall to bring an improvement.