Dry and settled start to April

Largely dry and settled conditions will persist across Ireland up and including mid-April.

High pressure situated close to Ireland will dominate the weather with long spells of sunshine and temperatures reaching 18 C or higher away from the eastern and southeastern coastal counties.

While some light rain is possible in southern counties on Thursday night, the next 10 to 14 days will see little or no precipitation cross the majority of Ireland.

While some frontal systems may bring showery activity to coastal counties of the west and south in mid-month, there are signals in the long-range weather model output largely settled conditions will continue during the second half of the month.

Patchy overnight frosts are possible inland under clear skies and where winds fall light.

Some areas of low cloud or fog are also likely, especially in coastal locations.

The settled spell follows a drier than average March.

Rainfall totals were below the climatological average at all 25 of Met Éireann‘s synoptic stations, with most locations seeing less than 50% of their average expected rainfall for the month.