STATUS YELLOW WIND warnings will come into place across the west coast over the weekend, with a similar warning in place across Northern Ireland.

In counties Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo and Sligo, the Yellow alert will come into effect at 3am and remain in place until 2pm on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the alert will come into place across Clare, Kerry and Limerick from 3pm Saturday until 3pm on Sunday.

Met Éireann has warned that sustained strong and gusty, westerly winds will veer north-westerly, coupled with large coastal waves.

The winds will peak on Saturday night into Sunday morning.

Potential impacts include wave overtopping, difficult travelling conditions especially near the coast, and fallen trees.

The UK Met Office has issued a similar warning across Northern Ireland, which will be in place from midnight on Sunday to 9pm on Sunday, where it’s warned that a prolonged period of strong winds will likely lead to some disruption over the weekend, especially to travel.

Meanwhile, tonight is due to start off mainly dry, though rain and drizzle will develop in the northwest towards midnight and will spread south-eastwards across the country overnight.

Tomorrow morning, rain in the south and east will clear quickly and will be followed by sunny spells and blustery showers for the rest of the day.

Saturday night will be very windy with showers becoming widespread overnight.

Some of the showers could be heavy and wintry, with a mix of rain, hail, sleet and possibly some snow, especially in parts of Ulster and on higher ground.

Sunday morning will continue very windy and with blustery showers, some of them heavy and wintry, again with a mix of rain, hail, sleet and possibly some snow.

Through the afternoon, showers will become confined to the west and north in the afternoon and will be mainly of rain or sleet.

And on Sunday night, showers will gradually become isolated and there will be some clear spells for a time.

Meanwhile, Met Éireann forecasts that Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and St Stephen’s Day will all be mild and mostly cloudy, with a fair amount of dry weather and some light rain or drizzle at times, most likely in western and northern counties.

The best of the drier periods will be in the east and southeast, with daytime temperatures of around 11 or 12 degrees, while the nights will be frost-free.