Met Éireann issues thunderstorm warnings for several counties for Halloween evening

Ottoline Spearman

Met Éireann has issued yellow thunderstorm warnings for six counties on Friday evening.

Counties Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Wicklow, Cork, Waterford will see heavy rain and thunderstorms, with the potential of spot flooding and difficult travelling conditions.

The warnings are in place from 7pm to 10pm on Friday evening.

For Dublin, heavy rain and possibly thunder will hit the city later on Friday evening around 9 or 10pm.

The forecaster said that the rain earlier in the day will "clear off to the northeast" through the early afternoon, and then "it's going to be dry and bright".

For much of the afternoon, there may be an isolated shower around the city.

During the evening, cloud will build from the south, and around nightfall, there will be some "outbreaks of rain moving off from the south" which includes "instability within that".

The forecaster confirmed that the unpredictable weather is not due to Hurricane Melissa, but is from a warm plume of air moving up from the south, bringing heavy rainfall.

In other parts of the country, Saturday will see a bright and mostly dry start with just some showers, mainly confined to Atlantic coastal areas.

The showers will become more frequent in the afternoon and spread further east. They will be heavy at times with a chance of hail. Breezy with moderate to fresh southwesterly winds. Highest temperatures of 9 to 12 degrees.

Sunday will be a mostly dry and bright start, but cloud will push into the southwest in the morning, gradually extending northeastwards to most areas by late afternoon. There will be outbreaks of rain and drizzle, remaining driest in parts of the east and southeast. Highest temperatures of 9 to 12 degrees with moderate to fresh westerly winds, stronger on western coastal areas.

Sunday night will be wet and windy with widespread rain, which will be heaviest over the western half of the country. It will be a mild night with the lowest temperatures of 12 to 14 degrees, accompanied by fresh to strong southwesterly winds.