MAKING PLANS FOR the weekend?

We hate to be the bringers of bad news (don’t shoot the messenger, etc) but the forecast isn’t looking too good.

Sure, alright, there are ‘dry spells’. But this is the August bank holiday weekend… Where’s our guaranteed dusk-till-dawn sunshine?*

Met Éireann Met Éireann

So what’s the outlook?

For today: cloudy with outbreaks of rain and drizzle spreading eastwards, turning more persistent in the west and north by the middle of this morning, with heavy falls and a risk of thunder in Ulster and Connacht in the afternoon.

Rain will become widespread in the afternoon and evening – with temperatures only reaching 14 to 16 degrees.

Looking ahead - Saturday looks to be the best day of the weekend, in parts of the country at least: southern counties will see a mostly dry start with sunny spells.

However, across the northern half of the country it will be a wet and cloudy day from the start – with scattered showers becoming widespread in the afternoon, with some heavy falls in places.

Sunday? Don’t talk to us about Sunday. Here’s what Met Éireann has to say:

Persistent and prolonged rain is likely to affect the western half of the country during the day and evening with heavy falls in Atlantic coastal counties.

There will be “some dry intervals in the east” but it will be “cloudy with outbreaks of rain or drizzle there too”.

Actually, come to think of it, maybe we were a little hard on Sunday.

Here’s the bank holiday Monday forecast:

Winds will increase further on Bank Holiday Monday due to a nearby Atlantic depression, which is likely to bring strong to gale force southerly winds. The detail regarding timing and intensity of the rain bands this depression will direct across the country are uncertain at this stage, but there is potential for heavy showers especially in western areas, while parts of the east could see more dry intervals.

Forecasters do give us a glimmer of good news amid all that, however, telling us “the southerly winds will bring a milder airmass with a chance of some sunny spells in between showers”.

*This, obviously, ought to read “dawn-till-dusk”. But if I changed it now, you’d all be on to me. (- DB, 12.10pm)

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