Weather warning: Icy blast brings snow showers to NI

Snowfall on Culicagh mountain, Country Fermanagh, last month

Eastern parts of Scotland and England are getting way more snow than Northern Ireland.

Showers develop over the North Sea where the easterly wind has a longer sea track or length of fetch.

The showers develop as the cold air passes over a relatively milder sea.

But in NI, we have a shorter sea track across the Irish Sea so most of our snow showers have been towards counties Down and Armagh where that sea fetch from the east is the longest.

A weather warning is in place for these areas.

The North Channel is narrower still so there have been fewer, or no snow showers, in those parts of the east which border the channel.

The south east will still be most prone to snow showers through Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning and a snow and ice warning is in place for these parts.

Met Éireann has issued warnings for counties Louth, Westmeath, Meath, Cavan and Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland.

The Met Office is also warning drivers to watch out as snow showers push across parts of counties Armagh and Londonderry on Tuesday evening.

In NI, it will become icy, especially over snow cover, as temperatures drop and further snow showers will fall onto these frozen surfaces as well, making for hazardous conditions in some areas.

Away from the south east, it will be mainly dry, perhaps one or two wintry showers towards the north coast.

Skies will be fairly clear and a widespread sharp frost will develop.

• Snow disruption as UK temperatures plummet to -16C

• Weather warnings as icy conditions return to NI

Temperatures will widely be down to freezing or below and could be down to -4 or -5C in some western areas.

Snow showers, mainly in the south east, will become more isolated through Wednesday.

Many parts will continue dry with sunny spells. The easterly wind lighter so less of a wind chill compared to the last couple of days but still cold with highs of 1 to 3C.