After a wet and windy start to October, Ireland is set to see more settled conditions from next week.

Long range weather models indicate higher than average pressure building from the southwest early next week, later moving north over or near Ireland. This is expected to bring drier than average conditions and temperatures near to slightly above the seasonal norm.

Parts of the west and north will continue to experience breezy and occasionally wet weather early next week, but drier conditions are expected to spread more widely from mid-week.

It will be far from wall-to-wall sunshine, however, due to the orientation of the high pressure system, but some bright or sunny spells are expected.

The settled weather could continue into the following week with light easterly or northeasterly winds allowing skies to clear, with cooler nights and a risk of frost in some areas.

A return to more unsettled conditions is likely in the second half of October, based on current model output.

The start of the month has been particularly wet, with some stations recording almost half of their monthly rainfall totals already. Storm Amy also brought damaging winds, especially across the north and west.

Malin Head in Donegal and Magilligan in Derry both recorded gusts of 148 km/h, with the latter marking the highest gust ever recorded in October in Northern Ireland, according to the UK Met Office.