AFTER A SHORT burst of glorious sunny days, Met Éireann is forecasting rain for most of the week, including over the weekend.

Showers already seen in parts of the country this morning will become more widespread and some will turn heavy and possibly thundery with hail this afternoon. It will be cooler today than in recent days, with highs of 11 to 14 degrees.

Tomorrow will also be cool, but largely dry with a mix of cloud and sunny spells. Met Éireann said there will still be come isolated showers in eastern coastal counties.

Thursday will be cool and showery, with some heavy showers and hail as well as a risk of slow-moving thundery downpours through the afternoon. The best of the sunny spells will be in western areas, with highs of 9 to 11 degrees.

It will be cool and bright on Friday but cloud will bubble up and showers – again, some heavy – will break out in the middle of the day.

Moving into the weekend, Saturday will see another cool and bright start to the day with sunny spells. However there will be scattered showers later in the afternoon.