Latest Met Office weather warning for Monday's storm

Met Office forecast chart for noon on Monday 28 October showing the centre of the storm in the North Sea Credit: Met Office

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The Met Office has updated its weather warnings for a major storm which is forecast to hit the Anglia region on Sunday night and into the early hours of Monday morning.

Winds could gust to more than 70 mph which is strong enough to damage buildings, bring trees down and disrupt power supplies and transport networks.

The Met Office issued an updated warning shortly before noon on Saturday

By midnight on Sunday/Monday the storm centre is in the Southwest Approaches Credit: Met Office
By noon on Monday the storm is forecast to have crossed the UK with the strong winds to the south and west of the storm centre. Credit: Met Office

The Met Office raised the Yellow warning for the Anglia region to Amber yesterday. Although the alert remains at Amber the likelihood of the storm impacting the area has been raised a notch.

The Met Office has three stages of weather warning:

  • Yellow - Be aware

  • Amber - Be prepared

  • Red - Take action

The storm will develop over the Atlantic on Saturday and is expected to hit the south-west of Britain before moving north-eastwards. Heavy rain is due to arrive on Sunday night with strong winds in the early hours of Monday.

It has been named the St Jude Storm after the patron saint of lost causes whose feast date is on Monday.

The Met Office described the storm as not one "you would see every year", and said the expected wind strengths would be similar to storms in March 2008, January 2007 and October 2000.

Computer forecast of wind gusts predicted at 3am on Monday 28 October. Credit: Met Office

The areas of strongest winds are expected to the along Britain's southern coast although this could change as the storm is tracked across the Atlantic by meteorologists. The purple areas in the map above indicated wind gusts of approximately 70-80 mph and the red area is roughly 60-70 mph wind gusts.

The orange colour represents wind gusts of 45 to 60 mph and the yellow area is 35-45 mph.

The strongest winds are expected on the southern and western flanks of the storm centre so forecasting the track of the storm is crucial to identifying which areas will be hit by the most damaging winds.

Satellite picture taken at 11.30am on Saturday showing the storm forming south of Newfoundland Credit: Met Office

Atlantic storms of this type usually develop further west across the ocean, losing strength by the time they reach the UK and Ireland. But this is expected to appear much closer to land, potentially moving across the country while in its most powerful phase.

A strong jet stream and warm air close to the UK are contributing to its development and strength.

Gemma Plumb, forecaster with MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "The first place that will see the strong winds will be south-west England, which could see gusts of 75-80mph. The storm will move north-eastwards, with winds of 60-70mph in the Midlands and East Anglia. Northern England and North Wales are looking at winds of 50-60mph."