An "early blast of winter" is expected over the coming days with blizzards and snow drifts in some parts of the country.
Met Éireann has warned that up to 8 centimetres of snow may fall in some parts of the North and West and the cold blast will continue into the foreseeable future.
A severe weather warning was issued at lunchtime which said frequent snow showers were likely to give accumulations of between three and eight centimetres from Thursday afternoon and during Friday.
Counties Donegal, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim and Cavan are expected to be worst effected but the rest of the country will be extremely cold as winds will be gale force from the North.
Where snow does fall in any great quantity, blizzard conditions are expected, causing some drifting, Met Éireann warned.
Flurries of snow will occur just about everywhere from tomorrow onwards, according to a spokesman.
"It will be very cold and very windy everywhere. We're expecting an early blast of winter," he said.
He added that the cold weather was expected for the foreseable future. "We're getting into a cold regime."
