Kilkenny's warm, dry winter to end as cold snap hits this week

Our unseasonably warm January looks set to come to an end this week, as colder weather moves in, with frost expected from Thursday.

The nights will be colder, and rain - and even sleet - is a possibility. On Monday, temperatures reached 11 degrees here, but Met Éireann says the big high cell that has protected Ireland from the bitterly cold and snowy weather in Europe is set to give way to chillier and unsettled weather. 

Met Éireann forecasts say the first half of the week is expected to stay mild, but it will turn colder and more unsettled around the middle of the week with widespread frost expected.

On Twitter, Niall Dollard of Kilkenny Weather has described the recent weather as 'strange', and he has had to cut the grass around the temperature screen during January for the first time ever.

It's a requirement from @MetEireann that grass around the temperature screen be kept cut low. For mt first time ever, I have had to cut it in January. In summer I'd never cut it in the morning because of dew. But grass this morning was bone dry and easy cut. Strange weather. pic.twitter.com/8XlApeAfTZ

— Kilkenny Weather (@kilkennyweather) January 14, 2019