Bitterly cold temperatures are forecast for Easter Monday, following a settled start to the Bank Holiday weekend.
Most areas nationwide enjoyed warm conditions and sunny spells in the past few days.
However, that is set to change from tomorrow onwards, with two cold snaps in quick succession potentially on the cards.
Two weather warnings had been issued for this weekend, with eight counties, including Cavan, Monaghan, Longford and all of Connacht under a Status Yellow fog warning until 10am today.
Meanwhile, a Status Orange High Forest Fire warning has been issued for the Easter weekend.
Temperatures dipped to -2 degrees Celsius overnight, and Alan O'Reilly from Carlow Weather expects freezing nighttime conditions to persist into next week.
On what we can expect on Easter Sunday, he told Sean Defoe on Newstalk Breakfast: "It will stay dry for most areas until at least late-afternoon and it should hold dry in the south and the east pretty much all day and the best of the sunshine will also be in the south and east.
"But unfortunately in Ulster and Connacht cloud will increase and we'll see some showers start to arrive this evening.
"Along with that, the winds will increase so it will start to feel cooler later today and those showers that came into the north and north-west will turn wintry by tonight and tomorrow morning.
"Then tomorrow morning, we're all going to wake up and go outside and feel like we've been thrown back into winter because the windchill is really doing to have a bite in it."
File photo of the Wicklow Gap. Credit: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ieMr O'Reilly expects the windchill tomorrow morning will be around -4 or -5 degrees in many areas.
It will stay dry tomorrow in many parts of the east and south, with more showers in the north and the west, and the possibility of showers of sleet or even snow on high ground in Ulster, he added.
"Generally dry is the good news, but if you put away the big coat you're going to have to bring it back out tomorrow.
The conditions are expected to stay dry for the week, with temperatures less cold and back up to 10 degrees by Wednesday.
"Nighttime frosts are going to be a problem for some as well, with a risk of icy patches," he said.
Farmers and gardeners, in particular, will want to be aware that temperatures could drop to - 3 degrees on Monday or Tuesday night.
Windchill forecast for the next few mornings shows how it will turn much colder from tonight. I hope you didn’t change to the summer duvet 🥶 pic.twitter.com/0B8iYvMKd7
— Carlow Weather (@CarlowWeather) April 4, 2021
Despite the low temperatures, Mr O'Reilly does not expect many counties to experience snowfall this week.
"Most areas won't see any snow, it will mostly be on higher ground in Ulster on Monday, maybe Tuesday a little bit," he said.
There will be very little rain in most areas for the upcoming week, meaning it will be cold but dry.
Mr O'Reilly added that the next couple of weeks could see two cold snaps in a row hitting the country.
"The only thing is it could turn cold again for next weekend so it might be that we have two cold snaps, one coming after the other with the possibility that it could be the 12th or the 13th before things begin to warm up just as we're going to be able to travel within our county," he said.
