This follows the first real cold snap of the year last weekGrey, cloudy skies at Shandon (stock)

Met Éireann is predicting a week of chilly and clear weather here in Cork city, while strong winds are expected to batter our coastlines in the coming days. Conditons today are expected to be fairly mild, with the last of the overnight showers expected to clear up by mid-morning.

Temperatures are expected to slowly rise throughout the morning, hovering around 7°C for much of the day, with a peak of 9°C around lunchtime. Met Éireann’s forecast indicates that temperatures will remain in the mid-single digits for most of the week, except for a brief period on Thursday when temperatures will peak at 12°C.

We saw some scattered showers across Cork city overnight; the last of which should clear up by around 10 am this morning. From there, it looks to be mostly dry throughout the rest of the week, outside of a few showers across Leeside tomorrow afternoon. These should be fairly light and should clear up by 3 pm.

Gale-force winds will hit our coastlines over the next two days, with the national forecaster issuing a Status Yellow Gale Warning valid until Monday night. Gale-force 8 or 9 winds are expected from Dublin to Donegal, accompanied by wind and rain warnings along our west coast.

Conditons across north and west Cork will be a little more unsettled, with much more rain expected for the week ahead. Temperatures will remain fairly consistent across the county, but persistent showers are expected across north Cork over the next few days, which will gradually move west as the week continues.

Finally, commuters would be well advised to stock up on de-icing spray, windshield covers, and other winter essentials, as temperatures are expected to drop to near freezing tomorrow night in a brief cold snap.

You can find the full regional forecast for Munster down below.

Today

Today will be a windy day with fresh to strong and gusty westerly winds. Sunny spells and some heavy blustery showers. Later in the day, longer spells of rain will feed down from the north. Highest temperatures of 8 to 11 degrees.

Tonight

Showers will be replaced by longer spells of rain overnight and will persist in the southwest till morning. Fresh to strong and gusty northwesterly winds will accompany the rain. Lowest temperatures of 3 to 6 degrees.

Tomorrow

Any lingering rain will clear southwards tomorrow morning with largely dry and bright conditions following for the day. Highest temperatures of 8 to 11 degrees in moderate to fresh north to northwest winds.