ALERT: Met Éireann's five-day Irish weather forecast for the coming week has landed

Monday: It will cold and breezy with sunshine and showers, some heavy or prolonged, especially in Ulster and parts of Munster with the slight chance of hail.

Showers will be isolated in the east. Highest temperatures of 7 to 10 degrees with mostly moderate west to southwest winds, but fresh to strong for a time in northern areas and easing later.

Monday night will be mainly dry with clear spells as showers become confined to coastal counties of the west and north.

Frost and some icy patches will develop as temperatures fall to between -2 to +2 degrees with light to moderate southwest or variable breezes. A few isolated mist and fog patches will develop.

Tuesday: It will be dry and sunny in most areas. There'll still be some well scattered showers around, with these most likely in coastal parts of the north, west and south. Highest temperatures of 5 to 9 degrees with light variable breezes.

National Outlook

OVERVIEW: Rather cold and mostly settled though midweek, with some frost and fog. Turning milder and a little more unsettled again later in the week.

There's the likelihood of some showery rain on Tuesday night in the southeast and east, with a little sleet over the mountains, and a few coastal showers in the north, otherwise it'll be dry with frost developing in many areas. Fog or freezing fog is likely to become fairly widespread too, dense in places.

Lowest temperatures of -3 to +2 degrees in mostly light variable breezes, becoming moderate north to northeasterly in the east and southeast.

Wednesday: Areas of mist and fog will be slow to clear through Wednesday and may linger all day in some parts of the midlands.

There'll be a little showery rain in the east and southeast in the morning, with a little sleet over the Wicklow mountains, and with a few isolated showers too near the north and northwest coast, otherwise it will be a largely dry day with some spells of sunshine.

A chilly day with highest temperatures of 4 to 8 degrees, colder where fog lingers, in mostly light northerly or variable breezes.

Wednesday night will be another dry and cold night with frost and icy patches developing.

Mist and fog will thicken early in the night and become fairly widespread for a time, but will start to clear later in the night, as light winds increase moderate easterly and freshen in the southwest towards morning. Lowest temperatures of -3 to +1 degrees.

Thursday: The frost, mist and fog will clear on Thursday morning and it'll be dry in most areas with some sunshine, especially further to the north and east.

However, it'll become mostly cloudy in the morning the south and west, with some rain and drizzle, mainly in the southwest.

Cloud will build elsewhere too through the day and it'll become breezy, and while there'll be some further scattered outbreaks of rain and drizzle in the southwest and south, it'll hold mainly dry elsewhere. Highest temperatures of 5 degrees in the north to 12 degrees with southeasterly winds increasing mostly fresh and gusty, stronger in some coastal parts.

It looks like Thursday night will be cloudy and breezy, with outbreaks of rain and drizzle, mainly in the southwest and west, with some heavy bursts possible in the southwest. Lowest temperatures of 4 to 9 degrees in moderate to fresh and gusty southeasterly winds.

Friday: Friday will be another breezy, mostly cloudy day, with outbreaks of rain and drizzle in the west and southwest, spreading eastwards. There'll be some mist and fog on hills too, especially in the south and southwest. Milder everywhere with highest temperatures of 10 to 13 degrees in moderate to fresh and gusty southeasterly winds, stronger in some coastal parts.

While there's uncertainty at this lead time for next weekend, it looks like it'll continue rather cloudy, mild and breezy on Saturday with some scattered outbreaks of mostly light rain and drizzle, especially in southern areas, with some mist and hill fog there too, but with good dry spells elsewhere.

By Sunday, there's a lot of uncertainty, with the possibility of some heavy rain moving in from the west, but there's also the chance that this may stay out in the Atlantic to lead to a mainly dry brighter day.