A cold start with sunny spells and icy patches for Co Kildare today

Today will start cold and frosty with icy stretches, with Met Eireann warning that the cold snap will continue this week with temperatures plummeting as low as -3C tonight.

The day with be largely dry with sunny spells and isolated showers. Afternoon highs will range from 3 or 4 Celsius in the north to between 5 to 7 Celsius in the south.

Mildest near the south coast. Southwest winds will be light to moderate.

Tonight, dry and cold with icy patches and some clear periods leading to some fog patches. Lowest temperatures as low as 0 to minus 3 degrees once again with very little wind.

Tomorrow will be a mainly dry day with sunny spells in light west to southwest winds and temperatures of between 3 and 6 degrees at best.Fog may linger in places.

Tuesday night will be mainly dry and very cold with lowest temperatures of zero to minus 2 degrees with frost and icy stretches forming quickly after dark. Some mist and fog patches forming for a time also. Later in the night Southeast winds will freshen near Atlantic coasts bringing rain to the Southwest by dawn.

On Wednesday, the rain and freshening Southeast winds will spread up over the country reaching most places by mid-afternoon. Western counties should turn drier again later in the day but heavier pulses of rain look likely to feed into Eastern parts during the evening.

There'll be a rise in temperatures to between 7 and 9 degrees.