Met Éireann issue chilling Ireland weather update as two words dominate forecast

Met Éireann has issued a detailed weather forecast for Ireland for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, St Stephen's Day and beyond and two words dominate the forecast.

The national forecaster has said the days over the festive period will be "rather cold" with temperatures potentially dropping below -3 degree in places, bringing some frost and icy stretches on roads.

Met Éireann's outlook says: "High pressure will bring mainly dry and settled conditions throughout the Christmas period and continuing into the New Year. Rather cold with an easterly airflow and with some frost by night and in the mornings, though eastern coastal parts are likely to remain frost free during the Christmas period and over the weekend due to the onshore breeze."

Specifically, forecasters say Christmas Eve "will start off mostly cloudy with a few isolated patches of mist, but will brighten up with spells of sunshine developing. Highest temperatures of 5 to 8 degrees, with light to moderate northeast to east breezes, a little fresher at times along the east coast."

They added: "Santa and his reindeer will have very favourable conditions for their trip around Ireland on Christmas Eve night. It's going to be a cold, dry night with mostly clear skies. Lowest temperatures of -2 to +2 degrees generally, with a fairly widespread frost and some icy patches, in a mostly light east to northeast or variable breeze. It'll be less cold and frost free though along the east coast, where winds will be mostly moderate and with lowest temperatures there of around +2 to +5 degrees."

READ NEXT: Irish people warned as government makes change to St Stephen's Day bank holiday

The forecast continues to say "frost will clear to leave a dry, bright Christmas day on Thursday with plenty of sunshine for most. Rather cold, with highest temperatures of 4 to 8 degrees and feeling colder, especially along the east and south coast with the added wind chill from fresh and gusty easterly winds there, otherwise easterly winds will be mostly moderate.

"Christmas night will be a dry, cold and mostly clear night with frost forming away from eastern coasts. Lowest temperatures of -3 to +1 degrees generally, though a little higher in eastern parts, ranging from 2 to 6 degrees. Easterly winds will generally decrease light to moderate, though will be a little fresher for a time along eastern and southern coasts.

"St. Stephen's Day will be another dry day with variable amounts of cloud and good sunny spells are likely once again. Highest temperatures of 4 to 8 degrees and it'll become a bit breezier with northeasterly winds increasing mostly moderate, and will be fresh and occasionally gusty along the east coast.

"St. Stephen's (Friday) night will be dry and cold with a mix of cloud and clear spells. Lowest temperatures of -1 to 4 degrees generally, though less cold in eastern parts. Winds will be mostly moderate northeasterly, but fresher in eastern and some southern coastal parts. There'll be some patchy frost in sheltered parts, but it'll remain frost free where its breeziest along eastern and southern coastal parts."

Looking ahead to next weekend, Met Éireann predicts: "It'll continue cold and dry with variable cloud and spells of sunshine. It'll be breezy enough on Saturday with moderate to fresh easterly winds. There'll be some frost in sheltered parts on Saturday night. Winds will probably ease light to moderate on Sunday, with the likelihood of more in the way of frost forming on Sunday night where skies remain clear. Those lighter winds on Sunday night mean some fog or freezing fog will form too.

"High pressure will continue to dominate next week in the lead up to the New Year and probably beyond into next weekend. So the dry cold conditions will prevail, with variable cloud cover and some sunny spells. The centre of the area of high pressure will move close to or over Ireland, which means winds will be lighter, but that means under clearer skies frost will be more widespread, with the added hazard of fog and freezing fog too, which could be slow to clear by day."