Ireland woke to snow on Friday morning, with a status yellow weather warning in several counties amid heavy snowfalls and ice.
March, to quote the well-known weather proverb, is coming in like a lion as the season of Spring begins.
Dublin, Louth, Meath and Wicklow have a status yellow warning valid from 3am on Friday morning to 3am on Saturday morning, but some of that rain will fall as sleet and snow.
A status yellow snow-ice warning is in place for Cavan, Monaghan, Kildare, Longford, Westmeath and Leitrim from 7am to 10am on Friday morning. The warning was in place in Donegal until 8am. In Northern Ireland a yellow snow warning is in place for Armagh, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Derry from 3am on Friday to 3am on Saturday morning.
Motorists have been advised to take extra care on the roads.
The rain, sleet and snow will move southwards across the rest of the country throughout the day falling mostly as rain in the afternoon except on higher ground. It will be cold for the first day of the meteorological spring with temperatures of between 3 and 7 degrees.
It will be cold overnight across the country of between minus 1 and 3 degrees with frost and icy patches possible.
Saturday will be cold with afternoon highs of only between 5 and 8 degrees and it will be cold on Saturday with temperatures of between minus 2 and 3 degrees with frost and icy patches possible.
Sunday will see temperatures of between 7 and 9 degrees with lows of minus 2 to 2 degrees. The cold weather will continue into early next week.
See our new project Common Ground, Evolving Islands: Ireland & BritainSign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phoneFind The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to dateOur In The News podcast is now published daily – Find the latest episode here
