Unsettled weather forecast but still too early to predict white Christmas

Tonight will be cloudy and mostly dry with some mist in places, while spots of drizzle are possible too. A touch of frost may form locally under any clear spells with lowest temperatures generally of two to five degrees Celsius.

Tomorrow will continue mostly dry and cloudy with a few brighter spells locally and a chance of drizzle in places. Highest temperatures of 5 to 9 degrees are expected in mostly moderate south-easterly winds - fresher near Atlantic coasts.

Temperatures will drop to between 3 to 6 degrees tomorrow night, with rain extending into the west and southwest accompanied by strengthening southeast winds.

The rain will spread countrywide on Wednesday morning. Drier conditions will follow for a time in the afternoon, but more rain is likely again in the evening and early night. It will be a bit milder on Wednesday with highest temperatures of 9 to 12 degrees.

Any lingering overnight rain in the northeast will clear on Thursday morning to give drier conditions apart from a little drizzle. Some bright or sunny spells will develop, and it will be quite mild with highest temperatures of 10 to 12 degrees in a light southerly breeze.

Friday, Christmas Eve, will bring rain at times. It will be colder with highs ranging a seasonal 7 to 10 degrees.

Met Éireann Meteorologist Siobhan Ryan said there is still some uncertainty regarding the conditions for Christmas Day.

“The calm and quiet spell is set to come to an end tomorrow night and it’s set to be replaced by a fairly complex Atlantic depression which is going to affect our weather from midweek onwards. It’s going to steer up bands of rain towards Ireland in the lead-up to Christmas Day,” she said.

“It’s going to turn more unsettled, but it is going to turn milder too. At the moment, whilst it looks like there’s going to be some heavy falls of rain possible in the southwest with more general falls of rain elsewhere, it isn’t all bad news either.

“It looks like Thursday afternoon should be very pleasant countrywide with temperatures rising into double digits and sunny spells for most parts.”

Meanwhile, Alan O’Reilly from Carlow Weather tweeted earlier today to say that there is also huge uncertainty about what to expect on Christmas Day. However, he said the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts model has “flipped” and is showing “far milder weather for Christmas Day and the following few days”.

Met Éireann’s Ms Ryan added: “Those keeping an eye on the Christmas weather know there has been a lot of uncertainty with regard to the conditions for later this Christmas week. That remains the case at the moment with our weather models still coming into fine focus, particularly for Christmas Day and beyond.”

Ms Ryan added that “everything is still to play for” and the public should stay up to date with the latest weather reports.