Updated Feb 4th 2021, 9:26 PM

MÉT EIREANN WILL be on “high alert” for snow next week, with temperatures beginning to drop from Sunday.

Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One, Mét Eireann’s Head of Forecasting Evelyn Cusack said that it will begin to get colder from Sunday, and that there may be snow showers on the east of the country on Monday.

According to Cusack, from Wednesday night there will be a storm system moving in from the Atlantic towards western Europe.

Meteorologist Liz Walsh said the weather is expected to turn progressively colder from early on Sunday as the cold spell now looks “likely to last well into next week”. 

She said the wind will be “especially noticeable” this Sunday and Monday, with gusty east to northeast winds. 

Daytime temperatures will remain in the low digits, generally one to three degrees Celsius.

Snowfall is expected in showers from Sunday onwards, but especially later on Monday and throughout Tuesday. 

Showers are initially set to be restricted to eastern parts of Leinster and Ulster, but may push further inland on Tuesday. 

Walsh said that there is “still a high degree of uncertainty in the forecast” from next Wednesday onwards. 

Met Éireann currently has no weather warnings in place for this weekend.

Cold conditions

Here is our 10 day Atlantic Chart, showing the pressure and precipitation forecast in 6 hour intervals.https://t.co/9Giuj4CR5mhttps://t.co/9gKN6SVok4 pic.twitter.com/qscXnPAJ5I

— Met Éireann (@MetEireann) February 4, 2021

Met Éireann will be closely monitoring the later part of next week as there will be a transition back to milder air coming up from the south, which could bring further snow. 

“The milder air could just come in and there might just be some snow for a few hours and then it’ll melt. Or the cold air could hang on longer and we could get quite a good bit of snow happening somewhere over the country – where the cold air is meeting the warm air,” Liz Walsh said earlier. 

Over the weekend, temperatures are not expected to get above 4 degrees with widespread frost and ice arriving on Sunday night. 

Scattered wintry showers will move into eastern counties and across northern coasts with a possible dusting of snow possible, lowest temperatures of minus 3 degrees. 

Multiple weather warnings are in force for the next five days across the UK.

There are three yellow weather warnings for snow today covering most of Scotland and northern England, with parts of Scotland expecting an additional 50cm of snow by Saturday night.

Updated by Tadgh McNally and Orla Dwyer