At one stage this morning traffic ground to a standstill in Letterkenny as driving hailstones reduced visibility to just a few feet.
There was also a large downpour of hailstones on the back road beside Mount Errigal – giving a white-out for a short time.
Temperatures have dropped – and showers will be heavy throughout the day before dying out later.
WEEKEND OUTLOOK:
It will be unsettled and changeable for the rest of the weekend and into the early days of next week. Often windy with showers or longer spells of heavy rain at times and generally cooler than of late also. Saturday night : Windy and blustery for much of the night with a spell of heavy rain giving way to occasional showers later in the night. Strong to gale force and very gusty southwest winds will veer westerly in the clearance, but there will be some severe gusts in places as it does so. These should moderate somewhat around dawn, when lowest temperatures of 4 to 8 C., are expected. Sunday: It will be cool and bright on Sunday with sunny spells; a few showers on Atlantic coasts, but most other places dry. Highs will be in the range 8 to 10 C.. Windy in the morning with strong westerly winds , but these will decrease moderate to fresh later. Cold overnight, with lows of 2 to 5 C., with some frost in places. Monday and Tuesday: It will become windy and very wet on Monday, after a dry start in many places. A spell of heavy rain that is due to sweep in off the Atlantic during the day, is likely to persist through the night, before clearing away to the east during Tuesday morning. The southwest and west will get the heaviest of the rain and there is a risk of some spot flooding there. Top temperatures 11 to 13 C., in strong to gale force southerly winds. The second half of Tuesday will be bright and fresh with sunny spells and scattered showers and just fresh westerly winds. Wednesday the last day of the month, is expected to be a bright, fresh windy day with a mixture of sunny spells and some rain or hail showers. Top temperatures 7 to 10 C.