Today

Mostly cloudy and rather misty this morning with scattered outbreaks of rain and drizzle.

Heavy downpours and spot flooding are expected in parts of Leinster during the day.

The rain looks set to become confined to the eastern half of the country during the afternoon with some bright spells developing elsewhere.

A cold day with highest temperatures of 6 to 9 degrees in brisk northerly winds.

Tonight

Rain and showers will ease early tonight to leave it mostly dry with long clear spells developing.

Minimum temperatures of -2 to +2 degrees with a fairly widespread frost forming by dawn on Friday.

Brisk northerly winds will decrease mostly light and variable allowing some fog patches to form.

National weather warning

A status yellow rainfall warning has been issued for Dublin, Kildare, Louth, Wicklow and Meath.

Spells of heavy rain are forecastat times, with some spot flooding possible.

The alert is in place until 9.00pm on Thursday.