Severe cold weather forecast for next week

Rhode's Cathal Nolan of Ireland's Weather Channel is forecasting a severe cold weather outbreak for next week, similar to conditions not seen since Beast from the East in 2018.

Current weather model predictions show very cold air from Siberia, spreading eastwards over the country, resulting in moderate to heavy falls of snow in the early days of next week.

Temperatures during the daytime will not breaking freezing point, while night time temperatures could fall to as low as -10 degrees!

"We have an active area of low pressure sitting across the country at the moment, it's what brought the very heavy rain we experienced during the week, and that's expected to last for the next couple of days bringing up to the weekend.

"By the weekend however, that low pressure will sink back towards the south of the country opening the gates to allow for cold air which originated in Siberia to flow in across the country, and by Sunday we'll see temperatures really starting to tumble, bringing a risk of snow in many parts of the Midlands in the early days of next week.

The cold weather system has many elements that produced Beast from the East in 2018.

"The phenomena surrounding the Beast from the East can be divided into two stages. The initial phase was dominated by streams of heavy snow showers that pushed in from the Irish Sea, and this was as a result of a meteorological phenomenon known as 'lake effect snow'.

"Very cold air becomes de-stabilised over a warm water body - in this case the Irish Sea, and it's able to produce its own showers. And that's when we see our heaviest snow here in the Midlands.

"Back in 2018, we saw 30cm of snow on the ground due to this lake effect snow, even before Storm Emma hit, which only added an extra 10cm.

"So when I look ahead towards next week's weather, I see a very similar setup to part A of Beast from the East, namely very heavy snow showers pushing in from the Irish Sea.

"Bands of snow showers will form, and areas under those bands are likely to see heavy falls of snow, but there will be areas that will escape and only see a light dusting of snow.

"It's very difficult at present to predict which areas will be affected, but what we can certain about is that the Midlands is a high-risk area early next week of seeing some heavy snow falls.

"At present we don't see part B, which is an actual storm system, like Storm Emma, pushing in from the south and interacting with that cold air and adding further heavy snowfall and of course very strong winds."

Cathal says that if snow cover remains on the ground, we could see temperatures approaching -10 at night time, while day time temperatures won't spike above freezing.

"Just how much snow we will see will be determined by location. In certain areas you could see 10 - 15cm of snow, which is a substantial amount for Ireland, but generally we could see between 5 - 10cm by the middle of next week. I have to point out though, that this is all based upon weather models at the moment which are subject to change."