NI wakes to freezing Friday temperatures

Northern Ireland is waking up to freezing temperatures on Friday with warnings in place for ice and snow.

Temperatures plummeted overnight after the Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for ice from 18:00 GMT on Thursday.

It warned that Northern Ireland could expect icy patches and possibly snow on higher areas of ground.

Irish weather agency Met Éireann said temperatures could fall as low as -3C or -4C across the island.

The flow of our weather is out of the north west, a direction of weather we call Polar Maritime, because it is both cold and wet.

Thursday's snow has been largely confined to north-west facing hill slopes but with temperatures dropping we're likely to see some flurries of sleet and snow lower down, closer to sea level.

Sub-zero temperatures and wintry showers overnight means that ice is a risk on untreated roads. Extra care is needed as rain could wash the salt away before it has a change to work properly.

With some of those showers bringing snow, it's going to start looking like winter - but any snow will only be light, so snowmen, sledging and snowball fights will have to wait until winter proper.

It added that scattered snow showers could be affected between 05:00 on Friday and 12:00 on Saturday and that Ulster and Connacht would be the worst affected areas.

Driving conditions are expected to be difficult in some areas and drivers have been urged to take care on icy roads.