POLAR BRRRR

Bitterly cold Bank Holiday weekend on way as arctic blast to bring hail & sleet

IT’S time to dust off the winter woolies as an Arctic blast bringing hail and sleet showers is on the way.

The cold front will tighten its icy grip by the weekend and cause daytime temperatures to drop to single digits while the bitter wind chill will make it feel even colder.

Met Eireann’s Liz Walsh told the Irish Mirror: “It will be a northerly airflow, and that air, if it’s coming straight down from the north, is coming from the Arctic. That’s why it’s cold.

“There is high certainty that is going to happen and that it will last throughout the Bank Holiday weekend.

“The UK could hang on to the colder conditions longer than Ireland because we’re further west and we’re more in the firing line from the Atlantic. Often the Atlantic gives us milder weather before it gets to the UK.”

Ms Walsh added temperatures for the long weekend will be “below average” and we could be lashed by hail showers.

She said: “It’s a showery flow, so some of those showers could be heavy with hail and there is a risk of thunder as well.

“We could see a bit of sleet on the tops of hills and mountains in the far north in Ulster.” And if you’re heading out on Saturday, wrap up warm as it looks set to be the coldest day of the week.

Ms Walsh said: “Saturday night is looking like a cold one from our perspective.

“There will be some cold frosty nights but we are heading towards winter, that’s bound to happen. But we’re not looking at -10C here. It will feel cold because the wind is going to be strong, a strong gusty wind, even though we’re looking at daytime highs of 6C to 10C during the day, it will feel colder than that in a northerly wind.” Meanwhile, today will be largely dry with sunny spells.

However, there will be more in the way of cloud in northern and western coastal counties and with the chance of a few patches of rain, especially along the north coast. Temperatures will reach 12C to 16C in moderate westerly winds, which will increase from fresh to strong on northern coasts.

Daytime temperatures at weekend but wind chill will make it feel colder