WEATHER: Kildare could see the first snow of 2022 on Thursday

Weather charts from www.wxcharts.com site show a continuous band of wintry showers (shown in pink) coming over the Atlantic. 

Irish Weather Online experts say that very cold air will generate bands of wintry showers on Thursday afternoon. 

The forecasters added: "Some heavy falls of sleet, hail or even snow are possible locally from these bands, more likely of course on higher terrain in the west but cannot be ruled out anywhere as westerly winds of 70-110 km/hr will push these mixed and possibly thundery wintry showers across the country.

"Temperatures will continue to fall steadily all day to reach zero to 2 C by evening."

Friday is also predicted to be very cold with mixed wintry showers.

Temperatures will range from -1 C to 7-9 C by the evening hours.

Met Eireann is predicting showers will be of rain, hail or sleet, possibly falling as snow over higher ground. Lowest temperatures of 0 to +4 degrees.