LAST UPDATE | 4 hrs ago

MET ÉIREANN HAS issued a Status Yellow weather warning for fog across 17 counties which came into effect earlier this evening.

The warning began at 4pm and lasts until 6am tomorrow across Cavan, Dublin, Donegal, Kildare, Laois, Longford, Louth, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Westmeath, Wicklow, and all of Connacht. 

Met Éireann forecasts patches of fog, as well as freezing fog, which will thicken this evening and tonight.

The Road Safety Authority says motorists should ensure their fog lights are on and warn that fog impacts on your judgement of speed, so you could speed up without realising it.

Fog also makes taillights look further away than they really are, so motorists should slow down and drive a safe distance from vehicles in front.

Freezing fog meanwhile can make it difficult to keep your windscreen clear, and motorists should use a defrost setting if their car has one or direct their car heaters towards the windscreen.

Meanwhile, the RSA advises that when motorists are at a junction, they should roll down the window and turn off the radio to listen for signs of approaching traffic.

It has also reminded motorists to switch off their fog lights when the fog clears.

It’s been a cold day so far, with fog lingering in parts of the midlands, leading to difficult travelling conditions.

There’s been daytime highs of just 3 to 7 degrees, but colder where any fog lingers.

It will be cold tonight, with widespread frost and some icy patches.

It will remain dry with clear spells for most overnight but will turn cloudier in the southwest later with patchy light rain developing near southwest coasts by morning.

There’ll be lowest overnight temperatures of -3 to 0 degrees but turning less cold in Munster with the arrival of the rain.

Tomorrow morning, there will be some hazy sunshine in the north and east but it will be a cloudy and damp start in the south and west, with outbreaks of rain.

Rain and drizzle will spread across most of the country through the afternoon, but rainfall totals will be small in the east and northeast.

It’ll be warmer tomorrow too, with highest temperatures of 8 to 13 degrees.