HALF OF THE country is set to come under Status Yellow weather warnings for rain over the weekend.

The first weather warning will be in place across all of Connacht, as well as counties Clare, Cork, Donegal, Kerry and Limerick.

This alert will come into place at 6pm tomorrow and remain in place until midnight on Sunday going into Monday.

Cork County Council’s Severe Weather Assessment Team convened this afternoon and warned that the flood risk in the West Cork and Bandon-Kinsale Municipal Districts is high.

Crews in Cork have been deployed and are monitoring known hotspots for flooding, with pumps being deployed, and sandbags being made available in a number of locations. 

Then overnight from midnight Sunday until 3am Monday morning, counties Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford will come under a Status Yellow warning.

Met Éireann is forecasting heavy spells of rain for the impacted counties and warns that the flood risk is increased due to the already high river levels and saturated ground.

Likely impacts include river and surface water flooding, difficult travelling conditions, and poor visibility.

A Status Yellow alert will also be in place across the North from midnight Sunday until 6am on Monday.

Met Éireann forecasts a dry start to tomorrow, with a few bright spells early on in the east.

However, it’ll become increasingly cloudy from the west, with rain and drizzle moving into west Ulster, Connacht and west Munster in the morning.

The rain and drizzle will gradually spread southeast wards across the rest of the country through the afternoon, with bursts in the west.

Saturday night into Sunday will also be rather wet and blustery with widespread spells of rain, heaviest in Atlantic coastal counties.

This will continue into Sunday morning, with widespread outbreaks of rain.

The rain will clear the west and northwest later in the afternoon with drier and clearer weather following for the evening.

The rain will be heaviest and most persistent in Munster and south Leinster with spot flooding possible.

Into Sunday night, the rain will continue to clear southeastwards, with scattered showers following behind and clearer spells developing.

And while there is some uncertainty to the details of Monday’s weather, current indications suggest rain may linger over the southeast, with drier and brighter conditions elsewhere and sunny spells and scattered showers that will become isolated through the day.