Brace yourselves.

The weather this coming week is looking particularly bleak. The latest update issued by Met Eireann, put out at 11am on Sunday morning, will take effect from one minute passed midnight on Monday night/Tuesday morning, and is currently set to remain in place until 6pm on Saturday evening. The warning states as follows: Exceptionally cold weather will occur this week. Air and ground temperatures will be 5 to 10 degrees below normal, with significant wind chill and penetrating severe frosts. Snow showers, mainly affecting eastern areas on Tuesday, will progressively become more widespread and heavier through midweek, with significant and disruptive accumulations. Additionally, the weather service recommends that people visit winterready.ie for more advice on how to deal with the impending severe weather. However, with the winds sweeping across Siberia from the North Pole bringing sub-zero temperatures, biting winds and snow flurries, the Irish Examiner are reporting that the Government's National Emergency Co-ordination Group on Severe Weather is set to meet on Monday morning. In what is being referred to as "The Beast From The East", the extreme cold front is expected to bring potentially record-breaking low-temperatures to Western Europe. https://twitter.com/StormchaserUKEU/status/967052691611553793 The AA's Barry Aldworth told listeners on Today FM to take extra care: "We may have been thinking up until now that winter was behind us, but it looks like this week we're going to get a little bit more. Unfortunately this weekend so far has been quite a bad one on the roads in terms of accidents, with injuries and fatalities across the country. So definitely we want motorists to heed the warnings - slow down, take extra precautions and make sure that you get home safely."