Storm Goretti, an extensive area of low pressure bringing further freezing conditions to parts of Britain and continental Europe on Thursday, is set to miss Ireland.

The UK Met Office has issued a status yellow ice warning for Northern Ireland, valid until 11am on Wednesday.

The forecast for the island of Ireland over the next few days is for cloudy and occasionally wet conditions with temperatures well above the recent cold snap.

Weather authorities across Europe say further low temperatures, ice and snow associated with an incoming area of low pressure, are likely to hit from Thursday onwards.

However, Met Éireann has said Goretti would not affect Ireland.

According to the forecaster, Wednesday will be mostly dry and cloudy with little sign of the low temperatures facing the country’s neighbours.

Outbreaks of rain and drizzle in the west and southwest will track eastward throughout Wednesday. Highest temperatures are expected to range between three degrees in the northeast and 10 degrees in the southwest, with mostly light westerly winds.

While Met Éireann said there was still “some uncertainty in the detail” for Thursday, current indications are that while there will be rain and drizzle further south, there will be drier and possibly brighter conditions to the north with just some coastal showers.

Highest temperatures of three to seven degrees, with light variable winds becoming northwesterly and increasing light to moderate through the day.

Friday looks set to offer plenty of dry and bright weather in many parts of Ireland. However, showers will feed into Atlantic counties, with some wintry in nature. Highest temperatures will reach 3 to 7 degrees, with light to moderate west to northwest winds, fresher in Atlantic coastal areas.

Met Éireann said conditions are expected to remain unsettled into the weekend with mixed conditions lasting into next week.

It has been a different picture in Britain and Europe where the last two days have already seen temperatures as low as -12.5 degrees on England’s east coast. More than 1,000 schools were closed across on Tuesday due to the snow.

Almost 200 UK flights were cancelled and many roads were declared impassable.

In Europe six deaths – five in France and one in Bosnia – have already been attributed to weather.