Met Éireann has issued a status yellow rain warning for Cork, Wicklow, Donegal, Mayo and Kerry.
The rain warning remains in place until midnight on Friday. A status yellow gale warning is also in place, with southerly winds expected to reach gale force today on all Irish waters and on the Irish Sea.
A spate of collisions were recorded in Cork earlier this week arising out of hail storms and inclement weather conditions. Gardaí have asked motorists to exercise extreme caution during poor weather.
Accumulations of more than 30mm of rain are expected, particularly on higher ground. Met Éireann says the rain will start to clear from the west later this evening.
Meanwhile, the rain will clear eastwards, but the south coast will see more downpours overnight.
“Early tonight rain will clear eastwards and moderate southwesterly winds will fall light, with some mist or fog patches forming. Lowest temperatures will fall to around 2 to 4 degrees. However, rain will linger along the southeast and south coasts and return by morning, with lowest temperatures there staying around 4 to 6 degrees.”
Met Éireann says Saturday will be cloudy and start mostly dry, but rain over the south will gradually push northwards during the day turning persistent and possibly heavy in parts of the south and west.