Met Éireann has today (Friday, April 18) updated the weather warning for rain in Co. Wicklow to Status Orange, with immediate effect.

The warning will remain in place until 11:00a.m tomorrow (Saturday, April 19), with the national forecaster warning of spells of heavy rain causing localised flooding.

Weather warnings for other parts of the country remain Status Yellow, with timings updated as of today.

A Status Yellow rain warning came into effect for counties: Carlow, Dublin, Kilkenny, Louth, Wexford, and Waterford from 6:00a.m this morning.

The warning will remain in place until 6:00a.m tomorrow, with warnings for spells of rain, heavy at times causing possible localised flooding.

The same Status Yellow rain warning is currently in place for Cork and Kerry, remaining a warning until 9:00p.m tonight. A similar warning is in place for Clare, Galway and Mayo until 9:00p.m.

The UK Met Office has also issued a yellow warning for Antrim and Down from 2:00p.m today until 3:00p.m tomorrow.

The Met Office has warned of a prolonged spell of rain, some of it heavy, will likely cause difficult driving conditions and some disruption to travel.

As low pressure is expected to dominate over the coming days, Met Éireann said that our weather will be more mixed and unsettled with above average rainfall expected.

Most places will see between 20 and 60mm of rain over the coming week, equating to between 1.5 and 4 times the average rainfall.

However, rainfall amounts over Ulster are likely to be close to normal or a little below.

This coming week will see temperatures close to average or within a degree of it, with mean air temperatures ranging from 9 to 11°C.

Soil temperatures are expected to remain above normal but will decline a little.

Drying conditions are expected to deteriorate countrywide later this week with widespread rain but may improve slightly over the weekend. Spraying opportunities will be very limited over the coming days.