IRELAND HAS BASKED in unseasonably warm conditions in the past few days, with temperatures hitting the high teens in parts of the country earlier this week.

It wasn’t quite record-breaking on this side of the Irish Sea, but conditions were even warmer in the United Kingdom, which recorded its hottest ever February day twice this week.

But conditions in both countries are set to change significantly in coming days, with the UK in particular bracing for the arrival of Storm Freya.

Ireland looks set to miss out on the storm, which will bring winds of up to 128km/h to the south coast of England and Wales on Sunday.

“There’s a depression coming from the Atlantic, the centre of which will touch the south coast of Ireland,” a spokeswoman from Met Éireann told TheJournal.ie.

“The strongest winds will be to the south or east of the depression, so they should miss Ireland if the storm passes on its current projected path.”

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However, the forecaster stressed that Ireland will still experience strong winds on Sunday, and that there was still an outside chance Storm Freya could hit the country.

“We could potentially get stronger winds for a while on Sunday in the late afternoon or evening, between 2pm and 10pm if the forecast happens as it’s predicted now,” the spokeswoman added.

“It’s a named storm, so there’ll be further updates. Things could change, so people should still keep an eye on forecasts over the weekend.”

And although today officially marks the first day of spring, the forecaster has warned against getting used to warmer temperatures for the time being.

Conditions will cool from Sunday ahead of what will be a mixed week of weather, and temperatures reaching highs of 10 degrees Celsius as frost and showery conditions return.