Cold snap for first days of 2025, after mild Christmas

It was a mild Christmas - and nowhere near a white Christmas - but the opening days of 2025 will feel much more wintry, with temperatures set to fall to minus four degrees.

Met Éireann said the first day of the new year will be "fresh and bright" for the most part, with a mixture of sunny spells and scattered showers, but it will turn "very cold with a northerly breeze" on Wednesday night, as temperatures drop to between zero and minus three.

Thursday will be dry but very cold, as daytime temperatures are expected to linger between just 1 and 5 degrees. Thursday night will bring a "widespread frost" and temperatures as low as minus four.

The picture for Friday will be very similar again, with daytime temperatures in the low single digits, followed by another frosty night.