Met Éireann has today (Wednesday, April 16) issued a Status Yellow rain warning for counties Cork and Kerry.

The warning will come into place from tomorrow (Thursday, April 17) night at 11:00p.m, remaining in place until noon on Friday.

The national forecaster has warned of spells of rain, heavy at times with possible localised flooding in places.

A Status Yellow rain warning remains in place in Northern Ireland until 9:00p.m today for counties: Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Tyrone, and Derry.

The UK Met Office has warned of persistent, and at times heavy rain bringing some disruption to travel and potential for local flooding.

Nationally, weather is expected to remain unsettled until the end of the week with a spell of heavy rain on Friday. It will gradually become dry through the weekend with current indications suggesting a bright day on Easter Sunday.

Most places will see between 30 and 50mm of rain, which is between 1.5 and 3 times the average rainfall.

This coming week will see temperatures ranging close to average or within a degree of it, with mean air temperatures ranging from 8° to 10°C.

Drying conditions are expected to deteriorate countrywide later this week with widespread rain but they will improve a bit over the weekend.

Opportunities for spraying will be very limited, but some opportunities will occur on Sunday.

All soils are trafficable at the moment, with soil moisture deficits ranging from 21mm to 44mm. There is some restriction to growth, especially in the east.

Soil moisture deficits will decrease this week, as there will be some heavy rain at times, but most well drained soils will remain trafficable. Moderate and poorly drained soils are likely to become saturated or waterlogged in some eastern, southern and western coastal counties.