A STATUS YELLOW warning for rain will come into effect tomorrow night for counties Dublin, Louth, Meath and Wicklow.

Met Éireann forecasts heavy rain at times in these counties, with the potential for spot flooding.

The alert comes into effect in these four counties from 10pm Friday night and will remain in place until 6am Saturday morning.

There will be outbreaks of rain and drizzle throughout much of the country this afternoon, though these outbreaks will clear early tonight.

After a mainly dry start to tomorrow, scattered showers will move in from the west and some will become heavy in the afternoon, with the chance of isolated thunderstorms and spot flooding.

Further heavy scattered showers will take place overnight Friday, the worst of which will be in the north and east where these scattered showers will merge to longer spells of rain and could lead to spot flooding.

This rain will linger in the east on Saturday morning while elsewhere will be mostly dry with sunny spells.

However, some showers in the north and west will extend to other areas throughout the afternoon and evening.

Saturday night is forecast to bring a mix of clear spells and scattered showers, and it is a similar picture on Sunday morning, with the heaviest and most frequent rain over the northern half of the country.

These showers will become more isolated and die out early into Sunday night, though cloud and rain will increase from the south throughout Monday morning and push northwards throughout the rest of the day.