Temperatures could reach as low as -11 degrees tonight, says Met Éireann

A Status Orange weather warning takes effect later today.

A Met Éireann meteorologist has warned that temperatures could fall to as low as -11 degrees on Wednesday night. Joanna Donnelly made the comments on RTÉ's Morning Ireland as a Status Orange low temperature/ice warning is set to take effect. Valid from 6pm on Wednesday (14 December) until 12pm on Thursday, it applies to Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Tipperary and Westmeath. Currently in effect is also a Status Yellow low temperature/ice warning for the entire country which is set to be valid until midday on Friday. Speaking on Wednesday morning about the forecast for later in the evening, Donnelly said:

"There's not a huge amount of precipitation. No sleet or snow apart from a few showers on coasts. "But the temperatures are going [to be] significantly colder. "I have the -7 widely in the forecast for overnight tonight, but it's going to be much colder than that in isolated areas. "There's -11s showing up on my charts here."

As for the conditions between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, Donnelly said that temperatures widely dropped to as low as -4 or -5 degrees. However, she also stated that at the Mount Dillon weather station in Longford, local temperatures overnight fell to -7.5 degrees. "The thing is it's not going to get much warmer than that today," Donnelly also warned.

"Temperatures this morning aren't likely to rise above freezing for much of the country, for much of the morning. "It'll be afternoon before temperatures creep above the zero mark, and they're going to fall pretty quickly by 4pm, tea-time. "They'll be down again to -4, so it's a really, really, bitterly cold day out there today."

Despite the current snap, Ireland is still some way off from breaking its lowest temperature record of -19.1 degrees. This was recorded at Markree Castle in Sligo in January 1881. More recently, a temperature of -17.5 degrees was recorded in Mayo on Christmas Day in 2010.