Significant snowfall accumulations predicted as temperatures fall to -7

Our weather is expected to turn significantly colder from Sunday, with the cold spell now looking likely to last well into next week.

The origin of the cold air over Scandinavia will bring a northeasterly or easterly component to the wind-flow over Ireland.

That wind will be especially noticeable on Sunday, as temperatures fail to get above 2 - 3 degrees, with some snow showers commencing on Sunday night.

That's accord to Ireland's Weather Channel expert, Cathal Nolan.

"Between Sunday night up until Wednesday, we'll experience snow showers pushing in from the Irish Sea.

"That will lead to accumulations across many parts of Westmeath, a chance of some appreciable falls of snow - particularly so on Tuesday.

"Tuesday we should see the heaviest falls of snow, and with that you could see accumulations of 5 - 10cm, or possible more locally," he warned.

"Certainly this will be heaviest snow since 2018. And it's likely to be on par with the Beast from the East in terms of its duration," he explains.

"At one point it had looked like this cold spell would last a lot longer, but we expect to see a change on Thursday. However, that change will initially accompany a pretty heavy fall of snow.

"As Thursday's system pushes in from the northwest, it's expected to interact with the cold air in place and essentially produce quite a decent snowfall across the country and that will certainly cause some problems."

Cathal says the wind chill factor will begin to "bite" on Sunday, while temperatures throughout the week will not reach above freezing during the daytime.

Meanwhile night time temperatures will fall to -6 to -7 in some parts.

More updates to follow.