Snow joke! Met Éireann issues snow-ice warning on April Fool’s Day

IT probably seems like a bad April Fool’s Day joke, but unfortunately Met Éireann was quite serious when it issued a Status Yellow snow-ice warning for 10 counties earlier today.

The snow-ice warning has been issued for Connacht, Cavan, Monaghan, Donegal, Longford and Louth from midnight tonight until 12pm on Wednesday.

Kilkenny, thankfully, so far looks as if it will escape the worst of the freezing Spring temperatures.

However, Carlow Weather’s Alan O’Reilly warned conditions will be “Baltic” tomorrow as he forecast a “bitterly cold day” right across the country.

Met Éireann also signaled a cruel farewell of the to the spell of recent warm sunshine as April opens with a dip in temperatures and some heavy wintry showers.

The national forecaster predicted: “Falls of hail and sleet will occur with snow accumulations mainly on high ground.”

Forecaster Michelle Dillon said the dramatic dip in temperatures was due to a polar air mass moving over Ireland from the icy north. She said this will heavily influence our weather over the coming days.

Met Éireann said overnight temperatures will sink to between zero and 3C in many areas tonight. There will be a risk of a ground frost in many areas, particularly along higher ground. These areas, particularly near inland or northern areas, may also experience some light snow flurries.

The next four days will see limited spells of sunshine, but also widespread and occasionally heavy showers.

It will turn particularly cold on Wednesday and overnight temperatures could sink to as low as -1C in some areas with a heavy frost forecast. The warmest daytime temperatures will only reach 7C or 8C.

However there is some good news in store for weather watchers. The national forecaster said Ireland is likely to enjoy a week of good sunshine from April 10, limited only by spells of cloud cover.