Sunny spells are set to last until the weekend with highs of 20 degrees forecast for Sunday.

Thursday will see some light showers in the southern and eastern parts of the country with sunshine prevailing elsewhere.

Skies will clear in most places by this evening with highest temperatures between 14 and 17 degrees.

Sunrise at white strand, Connemara on Thursday morning. Photograph: Pete Spillane

Met Éireann forecaster Liz Walsh said: “There’s plenty of dry weather forecast. Temperatures will perform best in the west and north with an onshore easterly breeze keeping us fairly cool in the east and south.

“Today we’re continuing to see cloud creep in off the Irish Sea over parts of Leinster and Munster but mostly sunny conditions will prevail over Connacht and Ulster.

“The cloud should eventually break up later today and reveal some sunny spells. The skies do look like they’re going to mostly clear this evening so we’ll have a fine end to the day.”

Taking the plunge in Sandycove on Monday. Photograph: Cyril Byrne/The Irish Times

Friday will be a rather windy and blustery day. There will be good sunshine in most places with generally more cloud in parts of Munster and south Leinster.

There is the risk of the odd shower with highest temperatures between 13 and 16 degrees.

Met Éireann said it will feel cooler in Dublin due to easterly winds.

“There will be some good sunshine around on Friday, but it will generally be a little cloudier in parts of Munster and South Leinster. It will still be a quite dry day with patchy drizzle in Munster,” Ms Walsh said.

“Saturday will be mostly cloudy with the best of the sunshine in Ulster and north coastal Connacht. There will be patchy drizzle around with highs of 11 to 15 degrees.”

Lengthy spells of sunshine are due to develop countrywide on Sunday although it may be a cloudy start to the day with the odd spot of drizzle for southwestern counties.

Winds will be light with temperatures forecast to rise to 20 degrees.

Monday is also expected to be a dry, sunny day with temperatures remaining in the high teens with colder conditions along the east coast due to a northeasterly sea breeze.

Tuesday is set to be another mainly dry day with sunny spells while a few showers may break out in the late afternoon.

Met Éireann said the conditions are “quite warm” for early May with highest temperatures of 12 degrees in Berlin and 16 degrees in Paris on Thursday.

There are summer thunderstorms forecast for parts of northern and eastern France along with northern Italy.