Winter has arrived in Ireland and a top meteorologist has warned that snow could even hit parts of the country by the end of the week.

The brief Indian summer ended with a bang on Monday morning when the nation awoke to driving winds and a major drop in temperature.

The rapid change from a mild start to October will be magnified when heavy rain and possible snow lands later this week.

Thundery showers and winds gusting up to 90 miles an hour are expected to batter parts of Connacht, Munster and Leinster by the end of the week.

Weather forecaster Pat Clarke from Met Eireann confirmed the warm weather is gone for good this year.

Clarke confirmed: “This week, it’s going to be much more unsettled, much cooler than we’ve had. People may be shocked by the change.

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“We’ve had an exceptionally mild couple of weeks when temperatures have been two to four degrees above normal.

“Coming from that, we’ll be going to temperatures coming back to normal, and even below normal this week.

“Some nights we’ll have frost and we haven’t had that this autumn/winter yet. It is going to be a lot colder, a lot windier and a lot more unsettled.”

It’s only going to get worse for Ireland next week with rain, wind and sleet on the way.

“The heat is certainly gone anyway and we’re back to changeable blustery, rainy weather at times,” added Clarke.

“It’s a big change really from what we’ve had. There will be occasional glimpses of sunshine but we won’t have the temperatures to go with it.”