Weather warning: Heavy rain and snow across NI

The warning is for heavy rain and some snow across Northern Ireland.

It will be in place from 2am until 1pm on Saturday.

Sophie Yeomans, a meterologist with the Met Office, explains: “We’ve got a weather system moving in and we’re expecting a lot of rainfall. Any snow that falls will mainly be over the hills and higher ground. We’ve got a yellow warning for both rain and snow but the rain will probably be the main problem.”

She added: “You might see some localised flooding in some areas.”

The rain is likely to begin to clear up in the afternoon but this will be accompanied with a drop in temperatures.

“In the afternoon time any snow that falls is likely to turn to rain,” she said. “There will be some clearer spells by the afternoon but it won’t dry up completely. There could also be a little bit of snow falling late on Saturday evening as the temperatures drop, mainly over higher ground but that’s not expected to cause any disruption.

“During the day we’ve got highs of about 9 Celsius.

There will be quite a split across Northern Ireland so in the south-eastern counties, that’s where we will see nine, possibly even 10 degrees.

“The further north and west, temperatures will be a lot colder. In the north, it will be only three or four Celsius.

Even in the south-eastern counties, once the rain has cleared in the afternoon, temperatures will drop there as well.”

The meteorologist also warned that there could be a further warning in place for Saturday night.

“With temperatures dropping I would expect there will be a few icy patches around,” she said. “On the Saturday night, we don’t have any warnings for snow and ice but it is possible that we may issue that tomorrow.”

She continued: “On Sunday it will be a brighter day for most places but we are expecting some showers and there might just be a bit of sleet and snow coming through. Bright spells with some wintery showers. It will feel quite blustery as well.

“It will definitely feel quite wintery with the highest temperatures of around eight Celisus, but with the wind chill it will feel a lot colder than that.”