Some very wet weather is forecast for Ireland over the coming days, ahead of the return of colder temperatures later this week.
A 24-hour status yellow rainfall warning for Connacht, Longford, Louth, Westmeath, Meath, Cavan and Monaghan comes into effect from 9pm tonight.
The UK Met Office has named the storm Storm Christoph, due to heavy rain expected in parts of Wales, England and Scotland.
Here in Ireland, 30 to 55mm of rain is expected in the counties covered by the warning, with a similar warning in effect for the six Northern Irish counties.
Here is the latest cloud and rainfall forecast from our HARMONIE weather model. It covers the period from now until 12:00 on Wednesday.
More weather forecast information for the coming days and outlook period can be found here: https://t.co/9gKN6SDMVu pic.twitter.com/wvHAxKVrYp— Met Éireann (@MetEireann) January 18, 2021
Met Éireann is warning of a risk of some river and localised flooding in impacted counties.
Alan O'Reilly of Carlow Weather told Lunchtime Live the whole country can expect some very wet weather tonight, tomorrow and into Wednesday.
He said: “[The storm's] primarily being named by the UK Met Office because of the risk of flooding, especially unfortunately in Wales and into parts of England and Scotland. But in Ireland we’re going to see very wet [weather] tonight, and very wet tomorrow.
“There’ll be more rain on Wednesday, and the problem then is we’re going to have some very cold air arriving on Wednesday - the back edge of that could turn to snow, particularly on higher ground.”
Icy patches can be expected from Thursday and into the weekend, but there will be some sunny spells as well.
He said: “The highest risk [of snow and ice] from Wednesday afternoon and evening will be the east and south-east, but the cold temperatures will be right across the country.
"There’ll also be snow pushing into the northern areas as well on Thursday.
“It’s the rainfall that’s going to be the biggest issue, especially in the midlands… We have high river levels already, and the ground quite saturated. Unfortunately areas prone to flooding should be on alert."
