Ireland will avoid a blast of snow destined for Britain - but long range forecasts suggest the white stuff could arrive on our shores next week.
The UK Met Office has issued danger to life warnings for snow and ice as temperatures in the north of England and Scotland plunge.
Forecasters there have warned of travel disruption and the possibility of power cuts with predictions for up to 20cm of snow on higher ground.
Meanwhile, Ireland is in for some cold nights but it should remain mainly dry.
Met Eireann meteorologist Emer Flood told the Irish Mirror: “Thursday night will be the coldest night of this week with temperatures of -2 to three degrees, coldest in parts of the north east and midlands.
“In the medium term there’s a lot of uncertainty in the forecast.
“Up until the early days of next week we’ll likely be getting fronts from the west, which would mean that there’s little to no likelihood of snow.
“There are signals that will turn into a more colder northerly airflow mid-to-late next week.
“It’s so far in advance that it’s hard to tell exactly what sort of precipitation we’ll be thinking about at that stage.”
Met Eireann’s monthly forecast hints at the possibility of snow on the east coast by next Thursday.
“With high pressure becoming dominant in the north Atlantic and low pressure over mainland Europe, Ireland will lie in a mainly northeasterly airflow,” the forecast said.
“However, this cooler northeasterly flow will bring drier conditions than normal over much of the country, though precipitation along the east coast will be closer to normal most likely due to showers feeding in off the Irish Sea, with the potential for wintry precipitation.”
A sudden stratospheric warming event, which happened just before Christmas, usually only shows its effects after some time.
This was the same sudden weather event that brought on the dreaded Beast from the East and Storm Emma in 2018.
Other forecast predictions have shown signs that colder weather could be arriving by as early as January 19.
Cloud and rain will gradually clear from the east on Thursday morning, leaving a mostly dry day with sunny spells and just some well scattered showers, mainly in the north and west.
Frost will return to some places overnight and Friday morning will start cold, dry and bright, but clouds will build during the morning, with rain affecting western areas during the afternoon and evening.
Rain will clear eastwards on Saturday morning, leaving a dry but rather cloudy day.
