Ah lads! The first snow of winter could be sooner than we thought

Just when you thought the bitterly cold temperatures might hold off for another week or two, Met Éireann forecast a something called a “polar low.”

And while we might not be trained meteorologists, we're going to take a wild guess and say that doesn't sound good.

An area of low pressure looks set to bring wintery showers over hills and mountains on Wednesday night, with temperatures ranging form just zero to three degrees.

Thursday will be another cold day with snow expected to fall over mountainous areas. Daytime temperatures will range from four to eight degrees, dropping to between minus two and plus three overnight.

It's a similar story for Friday, though showers will be confined to northern and western coast, with other areas expected to stay dry with sunny spells.

According to Met Éireann, the further outlook is for continued cold weather with showers, which can only mean one thing – winter 2017 has officially arrived.